


Meanwhile...

by Terygon



Series: Swappin' Bodies [1]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series), Critical Role (Web Series) RPF
Genre: Constructive Criticism Welcome, Gen, I'm not sure where this came from, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Sort of Canon Compliant and AU: Ours-More or Less, Title has changed, pretty sure this is fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-23
Updated: 2017-08-16
Packaged: 2018-10-22 20:27:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 20
Words: 24,441
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10704501
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Terygon/pseuds/Terygon
Summary: What would you do if you woke up in the body of one of your RPG characters? Laura and Travis find out.Edit: I changed the rating for Mature Language.Edit: I'm putting this in a series.





	1. Waking Up

He poked her hard. She grumbled and scooched an inch or two away from the finger in her ribs. He poked again, harder, and hissed her name. She rolled away from his insistance, muttering, “'S your turn t' take Charlie out.”

“Laura, wake up, damnit. We're in trouble.”

“Shit, Travis, what the fuck? It's still dark,” is what she would have said if an enormous hand, bigger even than her husband's, hadn't clamped over her mouth. Her eyes opened to find a giant, tatooed man squatting next to her, built in a way that made her gym-loving husband look scrawny in comparison. Scuttling backwards on hands and heels, she started to scream, but the giant lunged forward and clapped his hand over the bottom of her face again.

“Shhh, Laura. It's me. It's Travis, your husband, the guy who tricked you into snorting sake. I'd never hurt you. You're safe with me.”

Well, the dialogue matched the lip flaps. Laura would have calmed down, except she realized the size of his hand meant it was covering her nose as well as her mouth, cutting off her air. She tried prying his fingers off her face, but not surprisingly had no luck. She ended up beating on his forearm until he realized what was happening and let her go.

Her gasping inhale was louder than she expected. They froze, then a familiar whisper asked, “Are you all right, sister?”

“I'm fine, brother dear. Just a dream,” Laura responded, the panic in her eyes not sounding in her Vex voice. “I'm going back to sleep.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“Well, it was about me and Percival. Would you care for details?”

Gagging sounds came from Vax' direction. “Gods, no. Sleep well, sister dear. I love you.”

“And I you.” The pair waited until they heard the thumping of knives into tree trunks again. As a thought occurred Laura raised her eyebrow.

“Come to think of it, if you're the man who tricked me into snorting sake, you're also the man who convinced his best friend he was being raided and arrested by Immigration.” She rubbed the palm of her hand across his bald scalp, then examined it. “Huh, no body paint. I guess this isn't a trick.”

“You couldn't tell by my size?”

They sat staring at each other until Laura had a thought.“Wait, if you're here, and I'm here, maybe we're all here?”

“I don't think so. Percy's over there sleep-talking in what I swear must be Celestial, Vax is flipping his daggers during his watch, Pile is murmuring prayers to Sarenrae in her sleep, Keyleth is making flowers, Taryon is doing something with his robot's innerds, and no one who's awake seems surprised about what they're doing.”

Laura conceded that made sense, but still had a question. “What told you that Vex was really me?”

“You were sleep-quoting Trunks. In voice.”

She raised her eyebrows and tilted her head in a 'point taken' sort of way. “No wonder my throat's sore.

“Anyway, at this point we've got three questions: who did this, why, and how do we undo it?”

“One or both of us is dreaming, science hasn't answered that question, and we wake up?”

Laura grimaced, held out her arm, and hissed when her husband twisted some skin near her elbow. Travis then followed suit, commenting afterward.

“Looks like neither of us is dreaming.”

“Yeah, looks like,” They sat and stared at each other for several moments.

“So, got any other ideas?” She shook her head. “Me, neither.”

“What now?” Laura whispered almost timidly.

“Don't know about you, but I'm beat. Sleep now, figure it out in the morning?” As she nodded she felt like her head was going to fall off her neck. Travis continues, “Do we tell them?”

“I think that's one of the things for the morning,” she answered through a yawn when his chin sketched an arc incompassing the rest of the (their?) party. She stretched, muttered a good night, and flopped back on her bedroll. The bedroll that grunted, grumbled and rolled over under her head and shoulders.

Eyes wide, Laura froze. “Oh my god, it's Trinket.”

Hearing his name, the bear beneath her stretched, then resettled with his nose nuzzling against her neck. Muttering happily he took a long snuffle, then froze himself. He took a deeper sniff, his happy mumble becoming a quiet growl.

“Oh, my god,” she repeated, almost whimpering.

“Oh, god,” Travis echoed. “Ahh, cast Speak With Animals.”

“How?”

“I don't know! Channel Vex?”

Without a better plan Laura sat up straight, drew her braid over her shoulder, and gave a knowing smile. Looking behind her at the bear, she felt her actress' affection for a character's pet swell into an almost maternal love for a spirit she's been guiding, protecting, and protected by for over a decade. Her hands moved without her direction. Her mouth spoke words she didn't know. Then...

“Buddy, I'm so sorry.”

_Where is Vex?_

“I don't know.”

_What did you do to her?_

“Nothing! Whatever happened to her happened to us as well.”

_Bring her back._

“I can't, at least not yet. I don't know how.”

_Bring Her Back!_

“I can't! I didn't send her away. I don't know how to bring her back.”

 _I will hurt you._ The bear's vocalization dropped an octave.

“Please don't.” Laura pulled on the thick braid draped over her shoulder, then touched the pointed tip of one ear. “This isn't my body; it's hers. She'll need it when she comes back.”

_You said you can't bring her back._

“I said I can't now. I don't know how _now_. I'll learn how, or we'll find the person who sent her away, or someone else who can bring her back.” She risked placing her hand on his cheek. “She will come back to you, however we have to do it. I swear this to you, Trinket.”

 _I want my Vex back._ If a bear could sound like a toddler calling for his mother, that was Trinket.

“Poor baby.” Tears welled from Laura's eyes as she wrapped her arms around his neck as far as she could to hug him. Travis stroked his hand over the shoulders of both his wife and the bear she held.


	2. Waking Up, Elsewhere

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Meanwhile... (actually, probably a little later...)

The arm over Vex' waist was too heavy to be Percival's and far too large to be her brother's. And she was the little spoon. She was never the little spoon. Well, almost never and no one had died, left or attacked her sense of self-worth recently.

They were in a bed, whoever made up the other half of 'they', a bed with an unusually firm, yet comfortable mattress. She hadn't had any alcohol last night, much less enough that she would've dreamt she'd fallen asleep on her bedroll and bear in a forest clearing. Her bear! She couldn't hear Trinket breathing. Slowly she reached up to grip Raven's Slumber, but the necklace was missing as well.

Gods, this was bad.

Vex carefully worked her way out from under the arm and off the bed. The arm belonged to a human man, dark hair and beard, large for the breed. For a second she thought him familiar, but she couldn't place him. He was asleep, though, and so not a threat, as long she kept an eye on him, and herself between him and the door.

It was a strange room. The walls were almost impossibly smooth, with no candles or torch sconces, no fireplace. There were holes of all sizes in the walls , the floor, the ceiling, holes she could think of no use for. She recognized most of the furniture pieces, but identifying what sat on them was beyond her.

She caught a glimpse of movement and spun to face it, reaching for the daggar she always carried, but for some reason wasn't. She froze, as did the human woman she saw... in the mirror? As she rose from a crouch, the woman followed suit, and both reached up to touch the top of their rounded ears. Her rounded ear.

“Shit fuck balls.” She'd become human. Full human, not half anything. How the hells...?

She didn't see her gear. She looked carefully under the bed, then behind the two nearest doors. The nearest led into a closet with boxes, and two open cases with clothes falling out. The second revealed a room Vex couldn't identify, but it was very... shiny. And neither contained her pack, her broom, her bow, her quiver, her bear, her brother, her...

There was a third door. She opened it and stepped out into one end of a hallway, with an railing to the right and three doors on the left. Stairs descended to the right at the hall's opposite end.

She stopped at the first door. Hearing nothing from the room behind it, she looked in to find a room similar to the one she just left, but with more boxes. The second door revealed the same. She reached for the knob on the third door.

“What are you doing, Laura? That's Matt's game room. You know we're not supposed to go in there.”

Keyleth! Vex turned to latch onto her druid friend, but she stopped herself at the sight of the voice's owner. Besides being full human, this woman's hair came well past her shoulders. Keyleth's hair was roughly chin-length as of the night before. Her tatoos were gone and, most telling, though the woman looked a bit confused, the Keyleth Vex knew could never carry off the easy self-confidence this redhead wore like the druid wore her antlered circlet.

But then Vex didn't look like herself either.

“Keyleth? Is that you?”

“Real funny.” The redhead shook her hair out with a smile, which faded as she bent over slightly to look Vex in the eyes. “Hey, Laura, are you OK?”

“Sure, of course.”

She wasn't sure Not-Keyleth was convinced, but the woman spoke again. “Good. Well, we let you and Travis sleep in, but breakfast is almost on the table. Don't let it get cold.”

“Of course not, darling.” Not-Keyleth started to respond, but was interrupted by a glassy sounding crash and a plaintive howl.

“Where's Pike! Where's my monstah?”

The two women ran down the hall back to the room Vex had left. Not-Keyleth's long legs had her at the door first, but as she reached for the knob, Vex stopped her.

“No, let me go in first.”

The redhead paused, possibly to object, but another crash decided her. She opened the door, waving Vex in.

As she stepped through the door, the large human spun to face her, his eyes glowing red and his mouth starting to foam. Balls Mother Shit Fuck, there was only one person she knew whom it could be. She had to talk him down, but would he even listen to anything that came out of this face? She sighed. Only one way to find out.

“Grog, it's Vex. You need to calm down.”

He growled, advancing on her.

“It's Vex, Grog. I'm Vex. There's no one here to fight. You need to relax.”

He took another step towards her.

“Grog, please. I need you to take a deep breath. Please. You once told me I was one of the three people you trusted absolutely. I need you to trust me now. I'm Vex, Grog, and I need you to calm down.”

She inhaled as deeply as she could, demonstrating what she asked of him. His gaze fell to her chest, so she breathed out and in again, then again, keeping a slow, steady rhythym. His chest started to rise and fall along with hers. A good sign.

“Good, Grog, keep breathing. It's me. It's Vex. I know everything's changed, but I promise you we'll get it sorted out.”

The red in his eyes started to fade, but the large human's face stared at her distrustfully. “You don't look much like Vex.”

“I know, but then you don't look much like Grog, so there you are.”

“Prove it's you,” the big man pouted.

Vex sighed. “You still owe me five gold for the brothel in Stillben the night after we got you back from that necromancer.”

“That was a gift.”

“No, that was a loan.”

Grog grinned damply. “Hi, Vex.”

“Hi, Grog.” She patted his cheek.

“Where are we?”

Vex shook her head. “I don't know, but we'll find out.”

“Wow, I forget how good you two are together. You should play off each other more in game.” This was from a new voice.

Vex and Grog turned to the door to find Not-Keyleth standing beside and slightly behind a slender human male with long-ish light-ish brown hair.

“Yes, perhaps we should.” As she felt Grog walk up behind her, Vex fought not to wince. Part of being charming was knowing when a line wasn't being bought, and neither of those in the doorway seemed inclined to part with even a single coin.

The man looked concerned as he entered the room. “Laura, Travis, what's wrong? You're scaring me.”

“Vex, who are Laura and Travis?” Grog whispered in the way only he could. The way where he could be clearly understood two counties over.

“Laura, what's up?” The redhead had followed the man in and was again beside and slightly behind him. Vex somehow felt the position was not so much subservient as it was protective. “Is Travis OK?”

She kept her attention on the man in front. He confused her. She could see Keyleth in the woman, Grog in the man behind her, but when she took a hard look at the other man, it almost made her dizzy. Instead of one of her friends, Vex got glimpses of friends, enemies, people she barely knew. Saundor and Thordak shuffled with Gilmore and Allura, somehow fitting in Victor, that one-armed map maker, and dozens, hundreds of others. She took a step back and bumped into Grog.

“A lifetime of experience and my natural inclinations are telling me you won't believe me, but I've got nothing but the truth. I am very sorry, but we don't know your friends. They are your friends, right? The ones who normally look like this? OK, well, we're not them, we've never met them and if we had I'd have done a damn better job of convincing you we are them. We are from very far away, and would like to get home as soon as possible, assuming we can at all.

“I am Lady Vex'ahlia, Baroness of --”

“The Third House of Whitestone, Grand Mistress of the Grey Hunt, Slayer of Dragons,” the man and woman chorused. Not-Keyleth continued, “And he's Grog, the Grand Poobah de Doink of All This and That. Also, Dragonslayer.”

“How do you know that?” Damn, where was that boot dagger? Hells, where were her boots?

Not-Keyleth gave a disbelieving look. “What the fuck, Laura? We've been playing the game for four and a half years. You've had the title for something like a year now. How could we not know?”

“The game? You think we're part of a game?”

“I know you and Travis play Vex'ahlia and Grog in the game we play every week.” Not-Keyleth threw her hands up. “Why are we still talking about this? Nice try, guys, but it didn't work. Let's have breakfast.”

Grog straightened at the mention of food. Vex could imagine his expression.

The man tilted his head, his eyes locked on Vex's. “Just a second, 'Risha.”

“C'mon. Really, Matt?” Not-Key– no, Risha looked like she wanted to shake the one she called Matt.

He hanged his mind. “No, you're right. Breakfast is waiting. Why don't you take them downstairs and I'll meet you there in a minute.”

Risha looked like she would object, but Matt smiled at her reassuringly. She shook her head, glaring at him. “Well, OK. Come on, guys. Soup's on.”

They headed toward the stairs, where Matt turned off into the room they weren't supposed to enter. The other three went downstairs. Risha led them to a kitchen where she had them sit at small table, then plated food from the stove and passed it to them.

“Enjoy.”

That was the last word spoken until Matt entered the room, looked at Vex, and abruptly asked, “Was your mother an only child?”

An odd question.

“No, she had a brother and a sister, both older. The family disowned her when they found out about...” She reached up to touch where the tip of her ear had been the night before. “My brother and I weren't to have known, but I found her old diary. I never told Vax.”

“This is Laura's character sheet for Vex. Read the handwritten part at the bottom.” The man, Matt, opened the book to the page his finger marked and handed it to Risha. She read, “Elaina, their mother, was kicked out of her family when the twins were born. Her older brother, by then head of the family, was horribly xenophobic and convinced her mother and older sister that it was for the best.

“Vex only knows this because she stumbled upon her mother's journal. Vax still doesn't know.”

“I just wrote that,” Matthew said. “It's nothing Liam or Laura and I have talked about, so it's nothing Laura would know.

“I'm Matt Mercer. Pleased to meet you, Lady Vex'ahlia.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have no clue as to the layout of Matt and Marisha's house, so I'm faking it.


	3. In the Morning, Where We Started

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Back with Laura and Travis.

“Are you all right, darling?” Taliesin's Percy-voice couldn't decide whether it was concerned or angry.

Well, if Tal wanted to be in character at the break of dawn, Laura would play along, even if she wasn't quite ready to open her eyes. “I'm fine, dear. How are you?”

“Well, I was actually quite fine until I found the woman I love, who the night before had been explicitly clear that she wanted to be alone, asleep in the arms of a goliath whom I had counted a friend.”

That opened her eyes. Percy-voice... no, she realized as memories of the night before flooded her thoughts. Not Percy-voice, but Percy's voice, and it had decided on angry.

“I swear, Percival, it's not what it looks like.” Shit, could she have come up with anything lamer? As she tried to push out of Travis' grip, she thought Percy looked as if he totally agreed with her thoughts.

“It's... I was...”

“Cold. She was cold,” Travis chimed in, sitting up and letting Laura go. “I saw her shiverin' when I got off watch, so I thought I'd help.”

Percy wasn't buying. “If you were so cold, where's Trinket?”

“Trinket? Trinket's mad at me.”

“That's what you're going with? _Trinket's_ mad at you?” Percy's tone was more than a little derisive. “That's less believable than 'it's not what it looks like.'”

Laura fought the urge to bury her head in her arms. Percy's voice was rising and the others were going to wake up any moment. She'd been hoping for a minute alone with Travis to plan, but it didn't look like that was going happen anytime soon, especially since a black-armored form suddenly showed up behind Percy's shoulder. 

“So, DeRolo, why are you yelling at my sister?” 

Percy sputtered and waved his hand in the direction of Vex' bedroll before stomping off to the other side of the fire. Liam, no, Vax watched him go, then turned to stare at Laura, or rather, 'his sister', for several moments. After a while he broke the silence. 

“Who are you and what have you done with my sister?” 

While her brain stuck in an endless loop of how-did-he-figure-it-out, her mouth charged forward on automatic. 

“I'm Laura Bailey. This is my husband, Travis Willingham. We're voice actors from LA and we play Vex and Grog in a D &D game that's broadcast over the internet. How did you know?”

Vax' face went into spastic goldfish mode. Taking advantage of the break Travis leaned forward to mutter in Laura's ear. “Weren't we going to discuss what we were going to say before we said it?” 

“I'm sorry, Travis. I opened my mouth to improvise, but the truth fell out.” 

Vax' mouth clicked shut and he turned to walk back to the fire, gesturing them to follow. “C'mon, you two. It's too early and I'm too sober to process that statement alone.” 

When they reached the fire pit, the rogue put two fingers between his lips to give the most strident whistle Laura had ever heard. 

“Vox Machina! Everyone up!” He shouted as the couple sat. “I'm not dealing with this on my own.” 

Ignoring the groans, moans and complaints around him, Vax dropped down to lean back against a stump roughly a third of the way around the fire circle from Laura and Travis. Laura couldn't make herself release the death grip she had on her husband's hand (her husband's character's hand?) while said husband seemed perfectly happy sitting with his arm around his wife's shoulders (his wife's char- oh, just stop) holding her close. Their closeness brought a question to her mind, but the gathering of the party drove it out again. Apart from Vax' quiet “Kiki, could you go Minxie, find Freddie and bring him back here, please?” neither the twins nor the goliath spoke until the white tiger returned with the sleeve of a blue coat and the wrist of its owner between her jaws. 

“Keyleth, let go! I do not want–“ Percy's eyes met Laura's. His lips sealed shut. 

“Untwist your knickers, Freddie. From what I can tell, it really isn't what you think it is.” 

Percy's eyes wanted to challenge Vax' ability to be impartial where his sister was concerned, but his mouth stayed closed. His Lordship was running in full aristocrat mode. 

“Pull your nose down, De Rolo; you don't want it stuck up there.” 

Percy sneered. 

“Look, you poncey git, get off your royal prancing pony and listen. You don't have to believe them, but listen. 

“OK, you two, tell them what you told me.” 

The two outlanders passed the ball speechlessly back and forth until Travis threw up his hands. “Babe, we both know you talk better than I do. You start and I'll jump in when you need me.” 

“You are such a wuss.” 

Pike, not Ashley, sitting next to Travis, tilted her head curiously. “That sounded... That didn't really sound like Vex. And you don't sound like you, buddy. In fact,” she sniffed at his arm. “You don't smell like you. What's going on, Grog?” 

“Yes, I wondered about that, too. You don't smell nearly as awful as I would have expected Grog to smell.” 

“I couldn't get back to sleep, cause something reeked,” Travis explained. “Turned out it was me, so I scrubbed myself down in the river. Can we please get on with things?” 

Vox Machina stared at their barbarian with various depths of jaw drop. Taryon asked the question at the front of everyone's minds. 

“Are you trying to tell us Grog Strongjaw not only voluntarily took a bath, but that it was his own idea?” 

“Well, not exactly.” Laura's over the shoulder look promised her husband severe retribution for dumping this on her. “We aren't who you think we are. I'm not Vex'ahlia; my name is Laura. He isn't Grog; he's Travis and he's my, Laura's, husband. We're from, I guess you'd call it a different plane of existence, where every week we play Vex and Grog in a game... 

“Travis, do we want to try and explain Twitch and the internet?” 

He thought, then shook his head. “So far as we know now, neither has anything to do with whatever happened. We can explain them later if it seems important.” 

Laura agreed, though she noticed Tal- no, _Percy_ seemed to be making mental notes about what they were saying. It was strange. None of the people around her looked particularly like her friends who played them, but she kept having problems thinking of them as the actual members of Vox Machina, instead of the people she'd been playing with for five years. On reflection, maybe it wasn't so strange. 

“And, well,..” Laura thought about what else she should say. “Really that's it, basically.” 

Keyleth raised her hand tentatively. “It seems to me you left something out. How did you get here and how and why are you in our friends' bodies?” 

“We left those out because we have no clue to the answers,” Travis answered. 

“Oh, one more thing,” Laura added as the thought struck her. “Where we come from there's no magic, at least not like there is here.” 

“No magic?” Her comment apparently was both surprising and interesting enough to break Percy's silence. 

“No magic,” Travis agreed. “As a whole we're pretty strictly science based.” 

Percy looked at him for the first time since re-entering the clearing. “Science based, you say.” 

“I thought that would get your attention.” 

Laura noticed Pike give Travis a curious look Laura couldn't interpret. Deciding to deal with that when it should become necessary, she went back over what they had already covered. “Let's see, we aren't Vex and Grog, but Laura and Travis; we're from another world, one without magic; we don't know how or why we're here, or what we're doing in your friends' bodies. I think that's it for the basics, right, babe?” 

Percy twitched, Travis nodded, and Vax demanded, “Where's Vex?” 

“I thought that was covered by 'we don't know how, why or what'.” Laura sighed and thought. “My best guess is they're on our plane in our bodies, but that is absolutely a guess. I know you're worried about your sister, but at this point I have no idea what we can do.” 

Keyleth chipped in. “See, now that's what bothering me. You know Percy loves science. You know Vax and Vex are brother and sister. You know that Grog has a... strong odor. If you're not Vex and Grog, how do you know these things?” 

“OK. Shit. OK, this is the hard one.” Looking back over her shoulder again, Laura tried to hand off to her husband, but Travis deflected it back to her with hands open wide at his shoulders, palms forward. “Oh, boy. OK. Travis and I get together every, almost every week with six of our friends to play a game. The game takes place in a world completely different from ours, full of magic and intrigue, fierce warriors, giant beasts, and spell casters of all kinds. The gods meddle in the affairs of mortals, and sometimes the other way around. 

“In the game, we play some of the inhabitants of that world. I play Vex'ahlia, half-elven roguish ranger with undying love for her brother, her bear, and money, the order varying by the day. Travis is Grog Strongjaw, goliath barbarian with two great loves: fighting, women, and ale. 

“Liam and I share a birthday, so we thought it would be fun to play twins. He's obviously Vax'ildan, half-elven rogue turned god's champion, who'll do anything to protect his sister, his lady love, and his family. Marisha is Keyleth, said god's champion's lady love, half-elven druid, who recently be--” Travis' massive hand again covered her mouth like it had the night before, as he leaned forward to whisper in her ear. 

“May be spoilers.” 

“Oh. OH. Shit, well then,.. she's... the unparalled master of shape-changing. Taliesin plays Keyleth's best friend, Percival Fredrickstein von Mussel Klossowski de Rolo III, just call him Percy, gunslinger and inventor extraordinaire, Lord of Whitestone, who really should have been on Vex' list of loves. Sam used to play Scanlan the Bard, but recently changed to Taryon Darrington, novice adventurer who may one day become a tinkerer to rival Percy. And Ashley plays Pike, gnome cleric to Seranrae of Second Chances, healer and monsta, a goliath's best friend.” 

When Laura stopped talking, Pike and Vax both started to speak, then stopped themselves. Vax' open-handed gesture gave Pike the floor. In a small, almost timid voice, the cleric asked, “Why did this... Sam?... stop playing Scanlan?” 

“I'm not totally sure. I can only think he wasn't having fun anymore, and when all's said and done, it's a game. I'm sorry I don't have a better answer for you.” 

“Oh. OK. Thank you.” Pike's voice quieted until it was almost a whisper. 

Silence fell for a moment. Everyone was lost in their own thoughts, until Laura shook herself loose, looked over at Vax, and raised her eyebrows. 

“First,this might explain why Trinket decided to curl up beside me last night, whimpering like he only does when my sister somewhere else. Second, my question. You said you play with six others, but you've only spoken of five, and there're only seven of us, including you two. Is the last one... Tiberius?” 

“No, no, that's Orion. He had some personal problems and some health issues, so he had to drop the game. Matt's the one that's left.” 

“Who does he play?” Taryon asked. 

“Everyone and no one.” Laura tugged on the braid draping over her shoulder. “Matt's part of the game is kind of hard to explain.” 

Travis leaned forward. “Matt is our Dungeon Master. He is literally the rest of the world. He designed all of Exandria, populated it, and he decides what happens to it. Also, he is everyone you've ever dealt with, except for us- you- well, us.” 

“Everyone but Zahra, Kashaw, Kerrek, Tova, Lyra, and a few others. We had some friends come play with us a few times.” 

“So if I'm understanding things correctly,” Tary chipped in. “This Matt controls what we do?” 

“No, Matt sets up the situations we run into. We decide what we do...” Laura's voice trailed off. “You know, Travis, this brings up a question: does Vox Machina follow our decisions, or are our decisions based on what they have done or are doing?” 

“Laura, love of my life, heart of my heart, that is indeed a question of great import, but wouldn't you agree that finding that answer is slightly less urgent than figuring out how to get us home?” 

Laura gave him a half-hearted back-hand smack to his midsection. 

“That was for the sarcasm, not because you're wrong.” She gave her attention back to the rest around the fire. “Anyway, I think that's about it.” 

Pike disagreed. “I don't mean to be contrary, but how do we know this isn't just a big joke you two dreamed up?” 

“Seriously, Pickle?” Vax was surprised. “Didn't you hear what just came out of Grog's mouth?” 

“It's OK. I think I've got this.” Laura stood up, walked over to Pike, bent down and whispered in her ear. Pike's jaw dropped. 

“How did you know that? I never told anyone!” 

Laura shrugged. “Ashley told me outside the game. Your secret's safe with me, especially after we go home.” 

Pike blinked a few times before she said, “I guess we need to get you two home and our two back.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long. Hope it was worth it.
> 
> Also, when I say I have no idea where this is going, I mean I have no idea where this is going. Ask me some questions and the answers may be in future chapters.


	4. Meanwhile, Back In the Kitchen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marisha is unhappy with the situation.

As Vex gave her most gracious nod, Marisha looked back and forth between Matt and Vex. “No. No, no, no. Just... no.”

“'No', what, babe?”

“No, I'm not buying this.” Marisha crossed her arms in front of her chest. “It's impossible, you're trying to put me on, and I'm not buying it.”

“Why would we do that?” Matt looked a little hurt.

“Why would they convince each other to snort sake? Don't know, don't care, not buying it.” She sighed, scrubbing at her face. “OK, I do understand the sake thing; it was funny. But, damnit Matt, Travis broke some of our stuff, and _that_ isn't funny!”

“What's sake?” Grog muttered into Vex' ear.

She shrugged. “Something that shouldn't be inhaled, apparently.”

“Stop it! Just stop it!” Marisha turned and walked away from the other three, covering her ears with her hands. “Please, stop it.”

Matt followed her into the next room, where they began a vehement discussion. As it continued Vex noticed Grog was wearing his thinking face. (It greatly resembled his I-can't-take-a-shit face, which Vex had unfortunately encountered one morning while she was investigating the strange noises coming from near a river they'd camped close to the night before. It was something she'd never needed to see, and it looked even stranger on someone else's face.)

She ignored the look, If she was lucky, he'd figure it out on his own or, more likely, forget what he'd been thinking about. Either way she considered it good practice for him.

“'Ey, Vex?”

Apparently luck wasn't with her today. “Yes, Grog?”

“Why's Keyleth so mad?”

“First, that's not Keyleth. We seem to have some how sort of shifted planes last night. She's from this plane and her name's Marisha. The guy's Matt.

“As for why she's angry, I'm not sure she is, or at least not just. I think she's more frightened. She keeps saying 'that's impossible, that's impossible', so I'm thinking maybe cross-plane travel isn't very common here. It seems the sort of thing that might trouble people who aren't used to the idea.”

“Oh.” Grog grunted his understanding, but his forehead was still thinking. “'Ey, Vex?”

“Yes, Grog?”

“If there ain't plane shifting, then how are we getting home?”

Damnit, Grog, she'd been trying not to think of that. “Still working on it.”

“Mm. OK” Grog left her side to go poking around the kitchen.

To block the memories of home, she stepped over to Matt, who'd thrown up his hands and returned to the kitchen.

“No luck, darling?”

“She is so stubborn.” Matt fisted his hands against his scalp. Vex was half-tempted to find out if his hair felt as silky as it looked, but Marisha seemed upset enough as it was and, to be honest, she wasn't entirely sure what Percy's reaction would be once Grog inevitably blabbed. She pulled her attention back when Matt continued, “She should know that no prank is worth seeing her this upset.”

“Would you mind if I gave it a shot?”

He shoved one hand out, palm toward his lady, fingertips down, in a gesture Vex could only interpret as 'you can certainly try.' After telling Grog to listen to Matt, it's his home, she strolled into what turned out to be a dining room, pulled out a chair to sit at the table and waited.

Marisha paced back and forth on the other side of the table, ignoring Vex for several minutes. Eventually she turned to the not-really-a-half-elf-at-the-moment, planged her hands on her hips and stated, “You're not going to convince me either.”

“Didn't even consider trying, dear. Would you mind if I asked you a question, though? Well, two. OK, it's really one question in two parts.” Marisha shrugged. “What is the worst thing that could happen if you're right, but you played along anyway?”

“Humiliation. Travis would never let me live it down.”

“But you've already made it quite clear you haven't fallen for anything. You'd simply be going along to watch how things work out, as it were, or to keep the rest of us out of trouble, right?”

The redhead didn't respond, but she was still listening. Vex considered that a good sign.

“Now, on the other hand, suppose, just suppose that we're not trying to fool you. No, wait,” Vex continued when Marisha started to speak. “Let me finish. What if there is a one in a thousand... no, a one in a million chance that we're telling the truth, that we aren't the friends we seem to be? Given that one tiny chance I'm not this Laura you think I am, and you choose not to help, what would be the worst th-”

“Worst thing that could happen? They're stuck wherever they are because I didn't help, but that doesn't apply because you are here, standing right in front-”

It was Vex' turn to interrupt. “One in a million, Marisha dear... no, one in a million million. One chance your friends are stuck on another plane against nine hundred ninety-nine million... thousand... all the rest of the chances where you get a thump on your pride. Are the odds worth the risk? A question only you can answer, darling.”

Vex stood up and returned to the kitchen and the men. Matt started to talk, presumably to ask how it went, but she held up a finger to stop him. Moments passed. Vex was about to concede failure when she heard soft footsteps come up behind her. With an internal sigh of relief (the tall woman apparently did uphold the stubborn redhead stereotype) Vex turned to her.

“I still don't believe it.” Marisha's eyes met and held Vex'. “But I suppose it would be a pity to miss how you all play this out.”

Marisha pulled her gaze from Vex', meeting her... boyfriend's? lover's? husband's? brother's?... instead. Matt reached for her hand, raised it to his lips and kissed her knuckles. OK, cancel 'brother'. Vex found their interactions sort of adorable. They reminded her of Vax and Keyleth, though oddly the roles seemed reversed. Their foreheads gently met over small smiles, then their eyes turned to Vex.

“Sorry for the tantrum. So where do we start?” 

“Not to worry, darling,” Vex reassured. “I don't suppose you know any archmages? My magic is minimal and specialized, and Grog's is nonexistent.”

“I am a dark sorcerer!” Grog declared as a shower of crumbs hit Vex' back.

“And we are all in awe of you, dear.” Vex turned back to the couple beside her to explain the joke, but the discomfort the two were emitting was distracting.

“About that,” Matt rubbed his finger at the top of his ear. “We don't have a lot of magic.”

“Oh, I didn't mean you personally, but surely-”

“Not just us. I mean here, this world. We believe in science. We don't have magic. I don't know that there's an archmage on the planet, much less how to find them.”

Vex stared at him, at them. Surely he had to be joking, but neither gave any sign of being anything other that regretfully honest.

“Mother Bitch, we're fucked.”

That was when the bell rang.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A shorter chapter and a name change. I think I'm starting to get a handle on this. Questions still welcome, though.


	5. In the Forest, Again

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Why are they in the forest anyway? Plus Critical Role's resident 13 year old briefly gets loose.

Nods of agreement circled the firepit until they reached Keyleth. “But what about our current mission? Do we just abandon it?”

“Maybe delay it a bit,” Tary offered.

Travis asked, “What is the mission?”

“There's a mad transmuter a couple towns over,” Vax answered. “She's been abducting villagers for her experiments for a while now, and word of her has just reached Whitestone. Since we're not ready for Vecna yet, much less Orcus, and rumor has it she may have some useful shit, well, here we are.”

Laura turned to 'her' twin. “Is a transmuter what I think it is?”

“If you think it's an arcane caster who specializes in changing shit into other shit, then yes.”

“And she's experimenting on people.”

“According to what we could find out, yes.”

“Shit, Travis.” She looked up to meet the stranger's eyes that didn't quite hide her husband's spirit. “Priorities, right, babe?”

“We're probably dreaming,” was his response.

“But what if we're not?”

It didn't matter whose face it was; that was Travis' grin. “That's my girl.”

“Lives before... well, pretty much anything,” Laura sighed, turning to the group. “Your thing's more important. We can wait.”

Tary suddenly sat up straight. “But do you have to? Keyleth can cast Plane Shift, can't she?”

“She probably could, but Laura's ears would still be pointed, and I'd still be gray, bald and gigantic.”

“You mean you're not normally-” Keyleth interrupted herself. “Of course you're not. You just clearly implied... So you're both human, then? I don't know why, I just thought you always looked like you look.”

Laura shrugged. “Not an unreasonable assumption, I suppose, but our planet's pretty much humans only.”

“We've got animals and plants,” Travis jumped in when he saw the team's eyes widen en masse. “But elves, dwarves, gnomes and all like that are fictional.”

“Orcs? Goliaths?” Pike asked.

“Just in stories.”

“Wow,” the pale haired gnome responded. “Your home must be so peaceful.”

Laura came back with, “You'd think so, wouldn't you? Unfortunately we can always find a reason to fight.”

Silence fell briefly, Vox Machina members glancing uncomfortably at each other, until Travis cheerfully spoke up. “Aw, enough about us. We have anymore info on this mad caster?”

“Yeah, right,” Laura chimed in. “And what's the plan we're going to forget about the minute we meet her?”

“You know you're not making it easy to accept that you're not actually our Vex'ahlia,” Percy commented, cocking his eyebrows.

“Oh, but darling,” she purred in Vex-voice. “I could be making it so much... harder.”

Travis' shoulder check would have been gentle, but coming from Grog's body it knocked his wife off the log they both sat on. As Laura righted herself, her cheeks grew rosy and giggles and apologies alternated from behind the hand she held over the lower part of her face. Percy eyed both of them, then turned his cocked brow at Travis.

“You're awfully complacent for a man who's lady wife just said that to a man she met less than an hour ago.”

“There are two things you should know, my Lord de Rollo.” Travis' voice was cold enough to turn Percy's title into an insult. “No, Actually three things. First, when Laura gets unsettled, she tends to put on a voice. When she puts on a voice, she often puts on a persona that goes with it. We're actors. It's what we do.

“Second, we may have met this morning, but she and I? We've known you for over four years, and Taliesen would have understood. Sound weird? Deal, your lordship.

“And third?” Travis dropped his tone to the range he'd been told vibrated through the bodies of those he spoke to. “I love, respect, and trust Laura with everything that's in me. If you can't say the same about Vex, you've got more problems than finding her doppelganger sleeping in her husband's arms.”

“Aww, that was sweet, hon.” Laura stretched up to give Travis' cheek a peck, but could only reach his shoulder. After kissing the available target she got to her feet and turned to Percy.

“As for you, my lord, you're right. My comment was inappropriate, given our relationship from your position. You have my sincere apologies. However,” Her voice chilled to match her husband's. “The next time you have a problem with something I've said, something I've done, or anything else about me, you talk to me. Me. Not my husband, not my father, not my brother, not your friend's bear or any other male in the vicinity. You talk to me. Is that clear?”

As she finished, a gruff sigh came from just outside the clearing. Laura turned to see Trinket passing the tree line, walking toward her. He sat beside her and grumbled in Percy's direction.

Her eyes filled. “Oh, Trinket, I should be mad you're destroying my point, but I'm so glad you came back. Can... can I hug you?”

Trinket tilted his head, then stuck his nose under her arm. Laura gave a watery giggle and wrapped her arms around his head. She put her mouth next to his ear and whispered, “We'll get her back to you, I promise, but until then thanks for your help.”

He bumped her arm away so he could lick her from chin to ear, producing another giggle, then shook himself and sat back beside her. The two of them looked back at Percy. He nodded.

“Talk to you. I can agree to that.” He broke eye contact with Laura and turned to his team. “Perhaps we can bring our new friends up to date while we're on the move. Pack up and head out?”

There was no verbal answer, but Vox Machina turned to their gear, packed it up, put the fire out and within ten minutes they were on the road. Vax took point, as usual, so Laura jogged a bit to catch up with him before he faded into the forest.

“Hey, Vax.” He turned to her with questioning eyes. She bit at her lower lip before she continued. “Can I ask you a question?”

“As long as I'm not required to answer, I don't see why not.”

She took a deep breath. “How did you know?”

“Hmm?”

“The first thing you said was 'who are you and what have you done with my sister?' How did you know I wasn't her?”

“Promise not to tell anyone?” When Laura nodded, Vax rubbed his nose, looking a bit sheepish. “Honestly? I didn't. I heard Freddie yelling, and I saw you curled up on your bedroll when you should... well, she would have been on her feet shouting right back. I just said it so she'd remember who she was.”

“So if I'd tried to bluff it out..?”

Vax shrugged. “It might have worked.”

"Shit."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This came a bit faster than previous chapters. I hope it's a sign of things to come.


	6. In the House, With New/Old Friends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's a new world, and Vex and Grog start to learn about it. Also, more cast members.

At the sound Vex jumped, Matt spun toward the door, and Marisha dropped her forehead onto her hand. Grog kept chewing.

“Aw, fuck, he's here already,” Marisha moaned, while Matt started out of the room.

“We can't leave him on the doorstep.”

Vex put her arm out before Matt could pass her.

“What are we telling them?” Matt blinked at her. “Your friends. What are we telling them?”

“What do you think we should tell them?”

“I think we don't know your friends. The ones we look like.”

“The truth, then.” Vex dropped her arm and Matt continued to the door.

He opened it to a cheerful “Morning, Matt.”

“So it is,” Matt agreed as he waved his friend in. When the friend turned toward the kitchen, Vex saw a completely unfamiliar face that still pushed a whispered name from her mouth.

_Percy_

“I hoped I was early enough for breakfast.”

Marisha gestured him to a chair. “Come on in and grab a seat, Taliesen. Have we got a story for you.”

“Ooh, that does sound interesting. Do tell, do-” Taliesen broke off. “Are you alright, Laura? You look... off.”

“I.. I'm fine, darling.”

He looked confused, but game. “Are we in character today then? I didn't dress for it.”

He wore a blousy shirt and loose trousers, both linen-colored, an olive-green vest, and suede boots with rawhide laces. Nothing about his looks even whispered of her lover, but she saw it anyway, and when he changed his accent, her heart nearly broke.

“Sit down, Tal.” Matt stepped up. “We'll get you a plate, and you can eat while we explain. Marisha, where's the rest of the food?”

“What rest of the food? It's all on the table.”

The others' eyes probably dropped to the empty platters on the table, but Vex had no doubt as to where the food had gone.

“Grog!”

“Wha'?” The big man mumbled around a mouthful of food. “This custard bread is good!”

“It's called french toast,” Marisha sighed.

“Sorry, he's a nervous eater.” Vex slapped Grog on the back of his head. “There was more than enough there for all of us, you pig.”

“This guy's got a little belly, though. I'm full already,”

“O-o-okay. Well, then, I think I've got the big picture here, but could someone please fill in the details?”

As it turned out, Taliesen did indeed have the 'big picture', and the details they had didn't take long to explain. When he and Matt began debating possible causes for the situation, Marisha threw up her hands. “Really? Really, Taliesen? All it takes is an outlandish story, some admittedly excellent performances and a puzzle, and you'll believe the impossible?”

He shrugged. “Believe is a strong word, but... basically, yes. Well, that and the fact that if you were as upset as he said, Matt would have collapsed like a cardboard dam.”

She opened her mouth to speak, then closed it, her expression troubled. Vex hadn't spoken since scolding Grog but, as Marisha silently pondered, she asked, “Are there others?”

“Pardon me?” Taliesen asked.

Staring at a tall white chest that stood against the wall and hoping she'd hidden the flinch she'd given at his voice, Vex repeated, “Are there others? There aren't enough of us to be all of Vox Machina, so there must be others, right?”

“Yesss.” Matt's response was somewhat tentative. “Do you want us to call them over?”

“I think your friends will be with the rest of my team. Maybe we should be with the rest of yours.”

“We'll have to call them pretty soon anyway,” Marisha chimed in. “Unless we want to bring these two along to Renn Faire. The question is do we want the others here in the middle of this?”

Taliesen grinned. “I think Renn Faire with two actual high fantasy characters would be a blast, but we'd probably all have to be in character and, as previously noted, I'm in the wrong costume. But to address the point, I can't see any reason we shouldn't call the others.”

The three looked at each other, then they all nodded. Marisha spoke up, “I'll call Liam.”

“I've got Ashley.” Matt placed his claim.

“Which leaves me with Sam.” Taliesen reached into a pocket to pull out... something. It was small, sort of plank shaped, and very thin. Vex took a quick look around, saw that Marisha and Matt had similar planks and that all three were poking at their own. Matt raised his to his face, while the other two kept poking.

“Hey, Ash, it's Matt... Yeah, about that... Well, something's come up. Could you... No, no, not at all. In fact we were hoping you could make it over to the casa Mer-Ray?.. No, all of us... Good, see you then.”

“I thought you said you don't have magic.”

Matt jumped, nearly dropping his phone, at the voice coming from near his shoulder, much closer than he'd thought anyone was. When he turned he found Vex'ahlia, a groove of distrust carved between her brows. He looked at her, confused, until she clarified.

“The pictures change, and you spoke with this Ashley through it, though she must be at least a mile away if it will take her that long to get here. You said you don't have magic here.”

“We don't. This is technology.”

“Technology is what Percy creates in his workshop. That is magic.”

“'Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistiguishable from magic.' Arthur C. Clarke.” The comment came from Taliesen at the table. “And Sam says he'll bring donuts.”

“Oh, well, Liam said something about stopping for sandwiches. I guess we'll eat after all,” Marisha grinned.

Marisha and Taliesen demonstrated their 'cell phones' to Vex, trying to explain how they worked and the theory behind them, while Matt showed Grog cat and nutcracker videos. Grog probably got more out of the time than Vex did, although she did pick up 'swipe' and 'tap'. After a time Matt took a look at Vex and startled.

“You're still in your pajamas. We need to get you two dressed. Come on, Marisha. We'll be right back, Tal.”

The four went back upstairs. A few minutes later Taliesen heard Vex shout, “For the gods' sake, Grog, you won't be wearing pants. This Travis guy will be wearing pants. You'll just happen to be in his body while he does.”

Taliesen smiled. 

A few minutes after that he heard the doorbell. “Do you want me to get that?”

“Please. We're almost done up here.”

He was halfway to the door when it opened. Liam's grinning face was followed by the rest of him, which preceded the entirety of Ashley.

“Hey, look what I found in your driveway!” Liam tried to gesture but his arms were full. Ashley grinned and waved.

“Hi, Taliesen.”

He was about to respond when he heard running feet from the floor above. Looking up he saw Vex racing full out to the stairs. When she was halfway down she vaulted over the railing and continued her charge to dive the last feet at Liam. He managed to get his arms around her as she clung to him like a leech.

“I'm happy to see you, too,” Liam managed, looking through her hair at Taliesen, hoping for an explanation.

“You know that's not-,” Tal interjected. 

“I know. Shut up,” Vex grumbled into Liam's shoulder. “Final straw. Just give me this.”

Another noise came from upstairs, this time a roar.

“PIKE!”

Grog completely bypassed the stairs by jumping from the upper landing. He charged Ashley and swept her into a spinning hug. He held her away from his chest for only a moment as he asked, “You're big. Did you grow, or is it 'cause I'm smaller?”

As he crushed her back against him, a voice came from behind the hug-fest in the entryway.

“I brought pastries, so would someone please explain why _I'm_ not getting the life snuggled out of me when I walk in the door?”


	7. Walking Down a Road

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Laura and Travis are connecting with members of Vox Machina, but how did Travis do that? And why?

Vox Machina walked. And walked. And walked. And walked some more.

Travis was in the middle of blessing his years of cross-training (wait, that would only apply if he was in his own body, wouldn't it?) when he noticed Pike. The tiny woman was in front of him, talking with Keyleth about who knows what. What Travis did know was that the cleric was taking three steps to every one the lanky druid took, but still had to trot every forty or so to keep pace. When she stopped to put her hands on her knees and take a couple deep breaths before trotting back to the redhead, he lengthened his own stride until he could come up beside the two as they talked.

“Excuse me, Pike, but between the weight of your armor and your proportional, but relatively short legs, I was wondering if you'd let me help you out. When our Vox Machina has to travel on foot for long distances, I usually carry our Pike on my shoulders, with her permission, of course.” When he saw the instant refusal on her face, he pushed forward. “Look, I know I'm not the Grog you want but, for now, I'm the Grog you've got. Besides, I'd rather not have to explain to your Grog, should I ever meet him, why I let his best buddy get exhausted before we even got to the battle.”

Her stubborn expression mellowed as he spoke. When he finished she gave him a gentle smile, holding her arms up to him as she did. Travis' smile was more buddy-to-pal, and he lifted and turned her, then settled her on his shoulders. Pike settled in, getting used to his pace, then patted him on the shoulder.

“You know, you're a good guy,.. Trayvil, was it?”

“Close. It's Travis, and I could say the same, adjusted for gender, of course.”

She patted his bald scalp. “I sometimes ask myself if Grog was a little smarter, would he be as sweet. I don't think I have to ask anymore.”

Travis didn't respond, but his cheeks, ears, and scalp all turned a bit darker.

From the beginning of the marching order, Laura smiled and turned to face forward. Noticing her expression, Vax looked behind them as well.

“Oh, good. I wasn't sure she'd let him carry her. Since Scanlan left, she's been sensitive about being carried by anyone but Grog.”

“I kind of wonder what she said that made him blush.” Laura's smile changed to a slightly wicked grin.

“With Pike you never know.”

“True enough. I envy her a little right now,” Laura sighed. “We've only been walking a couple of hours, and my feet feel like they're about to fall off.”

“How about trying out Vex' broom?”

“Are you kidding? She'd kill me, wouldn't she?”

Vax' smile took on some wicked of its own. “How could she know? You're not going into battle on it, just saving your little tootsies.”

Laura paused, trying to listen to her better angels, but that little devil on her other shoulder, screaming 'but you could FLY!', managed to shout them down. Reaching to her back where the broom was holstered, she pulled it free, straddled it, and made the throat-clearing-spitting noise that activated it. As it rose under her, she inadvertently gave a little shriek before grabbing it with white knuckles.

“Laura, if you break your neck falling off that thing, I'm going to break everything else!”

Laura risked sparing a hand to flip off the call from her husband behind her before returning to the two handed clutch. Vax grabbed her foot as she rose so he could secure the harness to her ankle, then let her go to watch her soar to the tree tops.

“Yeehaw!”

“She's going to kill herself before I get a chance to,” Travis grumbled. He watched, his face changing from troubled to grudgingly amused and back, depending on the stability of his wife's flight.

On her part, Laura was having her mind blown in the best of ways. The sound of the wind blowing past her ears, the feel of it on her face, the expanse of the view as she soared, it all hit her right in the heart. It might have been an effect of her new elvish perception, but she couldn't find it in her to care.

She tried a vertical loop, then a barrel roll, then her delighted grin turned into a positively devilish smile no one on the ground could see. Positioning herself carefully she waited a moment, two, three, then zipped past Travis, booping him on the nose, and zooming out of reach.

Or at least that was the plan. What actually happened was she booped his nose and was clothes-lined across the chest as she tried to swoop away, winding up dangling from his arm as the broom fell to the ground. Several moments passed as she tried to gasp for breath, Travis' frantic back 'patting' and repetitions of her name the only things she could sense. Finally she was able to pull in some air after finding herself on the ground.

“I'm OK. Just knocked the wind out of me,” she panted, trying to squirm away from Travis' thumps. When he got the idea and finally stopped beating on her back, Laura took a few more gasping breaths, then turned to the goliath that housed her husband, trying to smile. “Great reaction time, babe. I didn't know you had it in you.”

“I don't,” Travis stated baldly. “That wasn't me.”

“Then who was it, because it sure looked like you.” Tary had run up just behind Percy, who knelt next to Pike, all three looking at the half-elf-in-name-only.

Travis shrugged.

After confirming with both Pike and Laura that the latter was fine, Percy looked up at the big guy. “What do you remember?”

“About this?” Percy rolled his eyes as he nodded. “OK, dumb question. Not much. I was talking with Pike and Keyleth, felt some wind, then I had an armful of Laura.”

“L-Laura, how about you?” Percy stumbled over her name. “What do you remember about flying the broom?”

“Oh, god, it was fucking AWESOME!!! I've never felt like that! The wind, the speed, the view. I can't describe it.”

Percy continued, “When I was watching you, I noticed that sometimes you'd be a little unstable, then you'd smooth out and, just when I thought you had it, you'd start wobbling again.”

“Yea, I noticed that, too. Flying was a lot easier when I was thinking about something else. Like I'd be looking out in the distance and I wouldn't even notice the ride stabilizing, then I'd think something like 'Holy fucking shit, I'm flying on a god-damn _broom_ , bitches.' and everything would go to shit. It's all about the muscle memory, I guess.”

“Muscle memory. Hmmm,” Percy murmured, then fell silent.

Keyleth shoulder-bumped the gunman. “You're thinking of something. Share with the group.”

“It's not really anything yet-” Percy cut himself off at Keyleth's slightly frustrated sigh. “No, really, it's just a thought-” After breaking eye contact with his best friend, his gaze dropped to meet Pike's. “Oh, gods, stop. I'll talk, I'll talk.

“That look is dangerous, Pike.” Percy shuddered, mostly for show. Mostly. “I must apologize to Grog for laughing at him.”

Laura piped up. “I'm fine, by the way, so if we want to keep moving while we talk, that wouldn't be a problem.”

Everyone got to their feet, Laura remounted the broom (“Oh, cool, it hovers.”), Pike climbed back onto Travis' shoulders, and they continued on. As they traveled, the forest changed to cleared land, the cleared land to fields.

“Your idea, Percy?” Pike prodded.

“Well, as I was trying to say, it's more some observations and a thought or two, than an actual- all right, all right. I just noticed that when you two are talking about yourselves, your friends or your home, you don't really move like warriors.”

“Probably because we're not.”

“No, we're actors,” Laura confirmed. “I think that was at least mentioned at one point or another.”

“So it would be safe to say that you're not an expert archer?”

“Very safe. I've been to the range a few times since Critters have started sending me bows, but I'm doing well when all my arrows hit anywhere on the target.”

“And you're not a raging barbarian.”

Travis scratched his nose. “Sorry. I'm told I'm scary when I'm angry, but that's probably not what you mean.”

“Not in the least, thank you. However,” Percy continued on his original point. “When you're just walking, listening to those around you, taking in your surroundings, you seem... I don't know how to say it. You seem bulkier? Sturdier? Maybe more solid? In short, you look more like Grog. Vax, did you notice anything when you were talking with her?”

Ignoring Laura's quietly grumbled ' _Her_ has a name', Vax thought for a moment. “You know, there were times I felt I was more likely to call her 'Vex' or 'sister' and, now that I think about it, those times tended to be when I was talking, or we were both being quiet. When she was talking, she didn't seem nearly as... Vex-y. And being her brother, or close enough, I find that to be an unfortunate choice of wording on my part.”

Vax' face looked like he'd just taken a large bite of a particularly unripe apple, but Percy ignored it. “I think there may be more of our friends left in their bodies than we may think. 'Muscle memory' seems to be a good description for it, thank you, Laura.” He stressed the name, and Laura grinned back at him. “I think we need to stop a little early tonight. We should find out how well we can get you to shoot, and if we can get Travis to rage.

“Basically, if you're only actors, for everyone's safety we should leave you in the village that's at the end of the road coming up. But if there's something more in there, we could certainly use the muscle, the firepower.”


	8. Hopefully the Last In the Kitchen For Awhile

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Who did it? Easy.
> 
> Why Vex and Grog? Why here? Not so easy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm having internet issues, so posting may be even more sporadic than writing for a while...

Six people sat around the table, all but Matt, who couldn't seem to stay seated, and Vex, who sat on the inset window sill and watched the small space behind the house. Liam, Ashley and Sam exchanged glances with each other, then Matt, Marisha and Taliesin, then Grog. (Vex sat behind them, and wouldn't meet their eyes when they turned around.)

Ashley broke the silence. “So, how do we help?”

“That simple?” Matt smiled.

“The way I see it, there's a story being told,” Liam chipped in. “Laura and Travis are either writing it or living it. I'd like to see how it ends, one way or the other.”

Sam, his mouth full of BLT, nodded vigorously while pointing at Liam, then Ashley.

“Thanks for making me look like a muggle, guys,” Marisha muttered.

Taliesin countered, “Hey, you had a perfectly rational reaction.”

“Yeah,” Ashley agreed with no idea of what they were talking about. “It's not your fault none of the rest of us are rational.”

Marisha's nod acknowledged her point, and the two grinned at each other. As they did Matt paced behind Grog.

“Actually, Ash, you started with a very good question.” Matt raked his fingers through his hair. “How _can_ we help? We have no magic, know no one who has magic, and have no clue how to swap bodies or planes, much less both, without it.”

After the room fell silent for a moment, Marisha spoke up. “Well, you and Tal know the most about game mechanics and how magic and, for that matter, the world works in Exandria. Suppose you two pick each other's brains for the how, and the rest of us will work with these two on who and why, which might help point to the how. When one or the other group comes up with something, or hits a wall, we break and pool what we've come up with.”

Matt and Vex both turned to gaze at her. Marisha just shrugged, then quoted the improv mantra. “'Yes, and...', right?”

“You always surprise me.” Matt leaned over and kissed the top of her head. “Sounds like a plan.”

The others agreed. Matt and Taliesin sat at one end of the table (if Matt could actually be said to 'sit' for more than one minute out of every twenty), and the rest grouped around the other end.

Marisha leaned back in her chair after noticing the eyes of the rest of the group were all on her. Well, all except Grog's, which switched between Vex, Ashley and the empty food platters. The redhead started with, “Um, I open the floor to suggestions, questions and ideas.”

“Chicken.” Taliesin grinned and bumped shoulders with her. “I'm thinking that first maybe we should figure out where we are in the narrative relative to each other.”

“Narrative? You mean story, right?” Vex' expression was dubious. “It's a rather odd word to hear as a description of one's life.”

“No offense intended,” Taliesin started, then Ashley interrupted.

“Sorry, but for us that's exactly what it is. Tell you what, we'll try and be more sensitive if you'll try not to jump on us when we screw up.”

“Fair enough,” Vex agreed.

It was Sam who actually got things started. “Does the phrase 'Chroma Conclave' mean anything to you?”

“Yes, dragons. Have you finished with yours?”

“Yes. Who got the final blow on the final dragon?”

“Kerrek, to his utter surprise. Who was the last dragon standing?”

“Raishan. What is the Slayer's Cake?”

“Our bakery. Subject change: I'm sorry, but it's driving me crazy. Obviously we're Vex and Grog, you're Keyleth, Pike and my brother,” Vex pointed at each in turn. “But you. How can you be both Scanlan _and_ Tary?”

Sam sighed. “Short form, OK? We have a few other things to cover.”

Vex nodded.

“Well, the way I saw it, Scanlan wouldn't feel like he was contributing enough to the group, and he wasn't getting what he needed from it, so he left. Since I didn't want to leave the game, Matt let me roll up a new character. Eh viola, enter Taryon Darington.”

She opened her mouth, then shut it, then spoke. “Focus, Vex'ahlia. OK, so if we've opened the bakery, then Keyleth has finished her Aramente.”

Liam picked up the question/answer rhythm as he handed a tuna on wheat to Grog. “Yes, and you did the Gray Hunt. Has Pike fought in the Crucible?”

“She's a MONSTAH!” More crumbs flew and Vex chuckled.

“By the gods, Grog wouldn't shut up about it. Actually,” She started, then paused, then nodded agreement with herself and continued, “I think that brings us pretty much up to this most recent job. You?”

The others thought then nodded. Marisha agreed, “Yeah, pretty much. So if we're all at that point, and Vox Machina is together, then this is something we haven't played yet. What are you doing now?”

“Cassandra received a request for help from a town a couple of counties southeast of Whitestone. It seems that since a high level wizard settled in the area with a group of her compatriots, locals have started disappearing.”

“Disappearing as in we're talking and suddenly you vanish before my eyes, or disappearing as in you leave my presence and are never seen again?” Ashley asked.

“The latter, I believe. Percy, Tary, and I were all a little bored, so we got VM back together and set up to see how we could help. Last night was our first on the road.”

“Wizards. There's a thought,” Sam commented.

“True, but it's strange.” Vex nibbled on her lip. “Why Grog and I? Vox Machina is literally the only thing I can think of that we have in common. And why here? I have never heard even a whisper of a hint of a rumor of a plane where we were all pieces in someone else's game. And why trade our bodies? That makes no sense!”

Liam asked for clarification. “You two have absolutely nothing in common?”

“Nothing I can think of. He's a goliath; I'm a half-elf.” Vex pointed at each of them in turn as she spoke. “Male, female. He fights face-to-face using the chaos of his rage; I fight at a distance, as far away as I can, and without a cool, controlled head and hand, I'm useless.”

“We both like shiny stuff.” Grog interjected.

Vex chuckled. “Well, there is that.”

“And... and we both like the pretty ladies.”

“True, but you don't really care for the handsome gentlemen like I do.”

“Huh, yeah, I guess.” Grog lost interest in the conversation, going back to sighing over the empty food platters. Sam passed him a Bavarian crème filled donut, which made Grog grunt happily. Then he took a bite, and his happy grunts turned into an awed silence.

Vex started to say something, then closed her mouth and shrugged. At the same time Ashley raised a finger with an I-have-a-idea expression dawning on her face.

“Wait. Just a... Okayokayokay. You say that choosing this plane doesn't make sense.” When Vex nodded, Ash continued, “And choosing you two as a pair doesn't make sense. So what if it doesn't make sense because this isn't how it was supposed to be. Someone screwed up, or something weird happened, and the spell went wonky.”

“Wonky, a technical term,” Liam teased. “But it's an interesting thought.”

“Interesting, yes, but does it help us?” Marisha asked.

Sam considered. “Maybe if we can figure out what went wrong? Maybe it will help us undo it?”

“It sounds like you all may have come up with something,” Taliesin broke in.

Ashley waffled, “Maybe, but-”

“'Maybe' is more than Tal and I have,” Matt admitted. “Plane Shift a) is a touch spell that b) sends the target to a plane the caster chooses. c) There is no 'Body Swap' or 'Trade Minds' spell in official fifth edition spell lists. I assume you would have let us know if there was someone you didn't know around last night.”

Vex rolled her eyes, and Matt grinned as he nodded. “Thought so. And if someone had snuck into camp to get into touch range, someone in VM would have seen them. They could have cast a ranged spell-”

“No, as adventurers we're too experienced to be affected by Sleep,” Vex rejected Matt's suggestion. “And any other spell like that we would know it had been cast on us as soon as the effects wore off. And yes, we would have mentioned that, too.”

Taliesin took his turn while Matt's grin grew. “As for the caster choosing our plane, I don't see how they'd know about us. It seems to me that, since we don't have magic, we'd be the perfect destination to send people you don't want to c– Wait, we may be assuming. Are we sure we don't have magic, or is it that we don't have people who can use it?”

“I– We– huh.” Liam was stumped. From the silence, the rest were, as well.

Vex spoke up. “Well, at last, a question that's easy to answer. Who wants to injure themselves for answers?”

“Or we can see if you can talk with Dagon,” Marisha countered when no one spoke up.

Vex' face from world-weary acceptence to almost child-like joy. “You have animals?”

“Just the one. Let me go get her.”

Unable to wait, Vex followed Marisha into the living room to meet her new friend. Her smile faded a little. “You keep him in a cage?”

A few of the locals tagged along behind the two women. “First, Dagon's a girl, and second, that's her home. We leave the door open and still, unless she's looking for attention, that's usually where she stays.”

“Is that true, little girl?” Vex muttered something under her breath while she gestured with her hands. She frowned, then repeated the mutters and gestures. After the third try she shook her head. “She's a sweetheart, but if the magic's there, I can't find it.”

“More evidence that Exandrian mages don't know this plane exists. If you could dump your enemies here, you'd never have to worry about them returning.” A small, broken squeak broke Taliesin's train of thought. “Ah... I mean...”

An arm came around her shoulder to pull her into a human version of a bear hug. “Don't worry, twinny. Guys like Tal and Percy, they just know what's possible. You and me, we know about doing what's impossible, right?”

The two men probably didn't realize that, even with her face pressed against his chest, she could still see Taliesin's face objecting to his explanation. So he probably didn't understand that she knew the feel of his muscles shaking his head meant he was warning his friend to stay quiet. Vex considered taking offense, but decided she preferred to keep hugging her... Liam. Keep hugging Liam.

“You hug like my brother.”

“A good thing, I hope.”

Her laugh was damp around the edges. “Best in Vox Machina, unless he's rubbing his knuckles on my scalp.”

“We call that a noogie,” Liam laughed as well.

“A 'noogie'.” Vex tried out the word as she relaxed her grip on Liam. “You people have strange words for things.”

“What do you call it?” he challenged.

“ 'My brother rubbing his knuckles on my scalp'.”

“I guess I should have expected that.”

Taliesin led the way back to the kitchen. He offered his chair to Vex, who declined with a shiver running through her shrug.

“Thank you, no, darling. Your house is beautiful,” she nodded to Marisha and Matt. “But even with the lovely large rooms, I find I'm feeling rather... confined.”

“That I think we can help with.” Sam's grin was pure Scanlan. He turned to his friends.

“Where do we want to take them first?”

Grog gestured with what was left of his donut. "Can we get some more of these?"


	9. In a Clearing, Two Wins and One Near-Loss

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trying to teach Laura and Travis to tap into their borrowed bodies abilities, Pike, Percy and Tary forget a detail.

Vox Machina pushed past the next village, stopping to set up camp a couple of hours later. Keyleth set up the fire circle while Vax collected deadwood for the fire. The rest went to another nearby clearing and split up, Pike and Tary with Travis and Percy with Laura.

Pike spoke up first once the three of them got settled. “Grog and I have been buddies for a long time, so I know a little about how he rages. At the base of it all is just what it says.

“Rage. Fury. Extreme anger. You need to tap into whatever it is that frustrates you, that sets your gut burning, that Pisses. You. Off.” As she poked her finger into his chest in time with her last words, she looked up into the face of her brother and best friend, only to find that the man behind the face gave it quite a dubious expression. Travis noticed her noticing him.

“I'm a big guy even when I'm not in Grog's body. I've spent most of my life actively _not_ getting angry.”

“If you want to fight beside your wife,” Tary chipped in. “You'll change that habit.”

The tiny cleric beside the artificer saw something flash in the back of the huge barbarian's eyes. OK, maybe they did have something to work with in him.

Percy tapped Laura's arm. She obediently raised her elbow to keep it more in line with the arrow she was about to fire. She released her bowstring, hissing as her arrow knocked some bark off her target tree, then sailed into the forest, Trinket happily chasing it.

“That was actually better than I was afraid it would be,” she admitted.

Percy nodded. “Yes, I agree. That is a small-ish tree at quite a distance. No challenge for Vex, of course, but not bad for a non-professional.”

She reached back to get another arrow from her quiver. Percy grabbed her hand and guided it to a different arrow.

“Not that one. We'd like the tree to still be standing after we're done.”

“Oh. Oh!” Laura pulled her hand away. “How do I tell the difference?”

Percy showed her the extra groove at the nock, the longer fletching and, if she missed both of those indications, the difference in weight and balance between the standard and exploding arrows. When Trinket returned, the arrow between his jaws, she thanked him, then asked him to stay behind her until she was finished. He tilted his head in confusion.

“I'm not as good as Vex, buddy. I don't want to accidentally hurt you.”

He tilted his head in the other direction, apparently confused by the concept she was trying to communicate to him, then Laura would have sworn he shrugged as he gave up and lay down behind her. She shot five more times, Percy's suggestions leading to three arrows actually sticking into the tree, though nowhere near the mark they'd designated as the 'bulls-eye'. For herself she wanted to celebrate, but she knew it was nothing like the skill level Vox Machina needed.

“This isn't working.” She gestured to Trinket to collect the arrows that had missed the tree.

“No, it isn't,” Percy agreed. “You're thinking too much.”

“You're giving me instructions about something I'm not good at. I have to think about them.”

“Should I stop giving you instructions?”

“Then how will I get better?” Laura almost wailed.

“Stuck in your head, babe?” Travis called from the other side of the clearing. At her confirmation, he suggested, “Try a Sana rap.”

“A what?” Percy asked.

“A Sana rap. She knows what I mean.”

“You going to beat box for me?”

“Babe, just give it a try.”

Laura's head started bobbing to her own beat. “First you draw a mountain-”

Travis shouted, “ _Draw!_ ”

Her hand reached for an arrow, pulled it forward, nocked it and drew it on the bowstring as she continued finish the first line. 

“Then you draw a waterfall.”

“ _Fire!_ ”

Her breath paused just after her pulse beat, her fingers almost just relaxing rather than actively releasing the arrow.

“Then you draw a lot-

“ _Draw!_ ”

Again, the arrow went from quiver to bow in one smooth motion.

“So you know you got it all.”

“ _Fire!_ ” Travis' roar stomped all over Laura's last lyrics. Her fingers released again and the arrow flew. Percy stepped forward to check the results.

“How'd she do?”

“One two fingers, one three fingers off dead center.”

Laura's voice faded out. “--And my mouth is a cup...”

“Great, you helped her out.” A certain cleric's voice firmly sounded from next to Travis. “Now let's get back to figuring out how to get you raging.”

Tary bit his lip in concentration. “Well, we know attacking his looks and physique don't work. Although I could probably insult him better if we knew what he actually looks like.”

“I'm, ah, pretty secure regarding both those areas,” Travis smiled.

“Secure?” It was Laura's turn to shout across the clearing. “More like insufferable.”

“Love you too, babe,” came the response.

“I bet she's a better... what did you call it?.. a better voice actor than you.” Tary gave it another shot.

“No question about that,” Travis agreed. “But I hold my own.”

Pike ducked away as they continued their challenge/counter routine, confirming as she did so that even as Tary was at his most in-your-face, Travis still had one eye on Laura. The cleric wasn't even sure he knew he was doing it.

Catching Percy's attention, she jerked her chin to the trees behind the now-muttering Laura. He nodded and they met among the trees behind the would-be archer.

“What's up?”

Pike explained their problem along with her proposed solution. After opening his mouth to comment, Percy paused, thought it through, and then answered, speaking quite carefully.

“You do realize that, if successful, I'll be facing an angry man with the power of a raging Grog.”

“We'll have your back, I promise,” Pike vowed.

He sighed. “I'd much rather you had his wrists. Preferably in divinely blessed adamantine manacles.”

She tried to hide her smile as she watched him trudge back to Laura, before heading back herself to Tary and Grog-- no, Tary and Travis. Positioning herself so she could see both the two she was with as well as the two working with target shooting, Pike saw Percy stroke the side of Laura's face, presumably to smooth back the hair that had escaped her braid, but with a gentleness that belied any practicality. He leaned closer and whispered into her gently pointed ear. She shook her braid behind her, spoke sharply to him, then elbowed him aside as she returned her attention to her target tree. He placed his hand on her shoulder.

Pike felt Travis tense. She heard him speak to himself.

“She is a strong, capable woman. She can take care of herself. She will call if she needs me.”

Percy turned Laura to face him, stepped forward until their bodies almost, but didn't quite, touch. Travis' mutter continued, growing into a growl as she pushed the gunsmith away so she could face the target again. Percy inhaled deeply, then reached around her and pulled her back against his chest.

“Damnit, Percy, I'm not Vex. Let go!”

Travis' eyes smoldered, but didn't catch fire like she was used to seeing Grog's do.

“You son of a bitch, get your fucking hands off my wife!” The sentence started surprisingly mildly, but quickly gained power until the last three words came out in a roar.

Remembering how they used to have to hit their barbarian friend before he could make use of his rage, Pike stuck her foot out to catch his as he advanced on the two on the other side of the clearing. As he regained his feet, she saw the change in his stance, heard the depth of his roar of, yes, rage.

“Watch out, Percy! It worked!”

“Oh, shit, well, yes. I apologize for all that.” Percy dodged to keep Laura between him and the giant bearing down on them.

Laura looked up at her husband plus a few hundred pounds of muscle charging towards her and Percy. Putting the shootist's words together with Pike's, and adding in the fact that Travis' eyes were glowing red (oh god, his eyes were glowing red!) as he circled her, trying to get to Percy, Laura figured out what was going on. Were _all_ the members of Vox Machina really idiots?

“Travis. Travis! Listen to me. It's Laura, Travis. I need you to calm down. Travis, please calm down.” Fighting to keep her voice soothing, Laura continued, “Please try to relax. You're frightening me, my love. Can you try for me? Maybe some deep breaths. Can you breathe with me, Travis?

“In.” She inhaled until her lungs were about to burst. “Hold it for a second... and out.” She exhaled until they were empty. On inhaling again she said, “In... and out... Travis, breathe with me. In... and out...”

After a few more repetitions Travis started to breathe in time with her. The longer they breathed together, the slower his circling went, until finally the two stood still, facing each other. Still breathing in sync with his wife, he began to droop and his eyes lost the red glow.

Laura risked putting out her hand to take his. She led him to a nearby tree, gently talking all the while, then sat down at the base, coaxing him to sit, then lay down in front of her, his head in her lap as she stroked his hair and hummed a quiet song. When he started to quietly snore, she looked up at the three who stood looking at them.

“Correct me if I'm wrong,” she said, in the lullaby voice. “But it seems to me that you tried to and succeeded in triggering a berserker rage in a man stronger than everyone here put together without someone for him to fight, or some spell or something to calm him down afterward.”

They wouldn't meet her eyes. They wouldn't meet each other's eyes, for that matter.

Laura blessed her years of voice work for enabling her to speak without waking Travis. Still in the quiet sing-song voice she asked, “Do you have any idea what it would have done to him if he'd hurt or even killed one of you? Yes, I understand that person would be injured or dead, but I'm having difficulty caring about that right now. He would have been devastated for the rest of his life, whether that turned out to be here or back home.

“I thought we were joking when we called ourselves a team of idiots.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've got a couple pages written on the next chapter, so I'm hoping it won't take so long for the next post.


	10. In the Driveway (Hey, It's Not the Kitchen)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vex gets something off her chest.

Vex stared at the 'car' in front of her.

It was Liam's and he was going to drive it, although how anyone could drive anything without the creatures to pull or push it that she was assured were unnecessary was beyond her understanding. That was not her problem, though.

“I'm sorry, but may I please sit somewhere else?”

“Of course, no problem,” Matt answered. He paused, then carefully asked, “Would you mind if I asked 'why'?”

Vex looked at the tips of her shoes. Marisha called them sneakers. Vex was putting off answering the question. She took a deep breath. “I suppose that's fair.

“You've been very kind to us, you and your friends. More than I would have expected, had I ever imagined this situation at all, much less that it was possible.” She chose her words with care. “Also, and this might sound self-serving, but Grog and I need you all and your good will if we are to have any hope of getting home, so I don't want to offend you.”

Matt nodded his understanding, and Vex bit her lip before continuing. “But you are the Dee Em. Taliesin said that means you make the situations for the rest of them to deal with. That is... hard to accept, yet I cannot risk reacting as I would like to.”

“I was kind of expecting this,” Matt said as he nodded again. “In my head, though, it involved more fists, and maybe a blade or two.”

“Then you know what I want to say.”

“I think so, but you should probably say it anyway. I could be wrong, and even if I'm not, it will be good to get it out in the open.”

“You destroyed Emon!” The words exploded out of her. “Thousands of people died! You almost killed Gilmore. You _did_ kill Percy's family. Our mother died alone-”

Her voice cracked as she choked back a sob.

Matt started to speak, but Liam broke in. “That isn't entirely true. Emon and Gilmore, yes, but if it happened before the team met in Stillben, it's actually on us players, not Matt.

“It's true,” he promised, wiping the tears from her cheeks, the crease from between her brows. “We built our characters, including their back stories. Sam had Scanlan's mother killed by goblins so Scanlan would go traveling. Travis decided Grog was beaten near to death by his herd so he would hang out with smaller people, so he and Pike would become brother and sister, and she would come looking for him when he was taken. Taliesin had the de Rolos killed and Percy tortured so a nobleman would have reason to be found in a jail cell, then hang out with a bunch of peasants, no offense.”

Taliesin's words stepped on the end of Vex' murmured “None taken.”

“And Matt saved Percy's sister. I thought all his family was dead, but Matt kept her alive. For dramatic effect, no doubt, but she's still around because of him.”

“Still, it's my responsibility.” Matt seemed unconvinced.

Liam responded, “Get over yourself, Mercer.”

“But if I didn't run the game, nothing bad would have happened to them,” Matt stated.

Liam countered, “If you hadn't run the game, nothing would have happened to them at all.”

“If you hadn't run the game,” Vex spoke softly as she processed a new idea. “Vox Machina wouldn't exist at all.”

“I'm not actually so sure of that,” Marisha contradicted from the seat in front on the right. “How do we know that it's us that affects your world? Why do we assume that this is 'the real world' that creates and changes all the others? Sounds pretty arrogant to me.

“To me, it makes more sense that somehow we subconsciously tap into our characters or, in Matt's case, Exandria as a whole, and get who they are and what we do in game from there. Think of the energy needed to run, say, a manufacturing plant, as opposed to... a phone, or a television, or a nanny-cam. It doesn't seem to me that I expend that much energy accessing Keyleth's personality so, though I can't say for sure, it doesn't seem like we must be the ones creating their world.”

Vex blinked at the redhead. “I only know what one of those things is, but I think I understand your point. I think.”

“So how do we figure out who's causing what?” Taliesin asked.

“I vote we don't even try.” Liam answered. “Frankly, I don't really want to know. Do you really want to find out you've killed real people just by writing a story?”

“Excellent point.”

“Don't we-?” Matt started to ask, but Marisha interrupted, “Hey, guys? Can we continue this while driving? The others have left already. I don't want to get there and find out Grog's eaten everything on the shelves.”

Everyone agreed. Matt considered, “So if I get in the door on the other side and Sam takes the middle, then you don't have to--”

“No.”

“No?” Vex' flat refusal seemed to throw Matt. “Well, I guess Marisha—”

“No,” she repeated. “This is fine. I'll sit in the middle. It's OK.”

She cut off his response with a smile as she slid into the car. It wasn't her full on I-know-you-want-me-darling-who-wouldn't smile he was used to seeing Laura give on set, but it was more than Vex had given him since they'd met.

It would do for now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoa, two chapters in two days. OK, I cheated a bit and had some written before I posted the last one, and it's not very long, but hey, it's here.


	11. The Campsite, In the Aftermath of a Lack of Forethought

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Laura comforts Travis, then he returns the favor.

Laura strode into the campsite towing a yawning Travis, a concerned Trinket at her side, with Percy, Pike and Tary trailing behind. She pulled him across the clearing, sat him down beside a log, and sat herself on the log behind him, wrapping her arms and legs around him in the best full body bear hug a half-elf could give a goliath. Whispering in his ear she totally ignored the others. When she didn't react to a bear's nose on the back of her neck, Trinket backed off a few feet and sat, shifting his weight from left leg to right and back.

“What happened?” Vax asked the three as they came up to him and Keyleth.

None of them spoke for a moment, each obviously hoping one of the others would. Finally Pike said, “Well, I guess we didn't look far enough ahead.”

Tary chipped in. “But hey, it worked. That's good, right?”

“What. Exactly. Happened?” Vax was insistent.

Percy explained, the other two adding detail as he went. When they finished, the half-elves groaned almost in harmony, Keyleth adding, “Percy, you're supposed to be the smart one.

“Let me,” she stopped Vax from walking across the site. “She's not really your sister. I think I can keep that in mind a little better.”

Vax thought, then agreed. Keyleth walked over to sit cross-legged in front of the married couple and listened to Laura, who had graduated to muttering things like “... protect you from those idiots.” and “How have they survived?”

Slowly her muttering changed to a quiet humming and she started soothing her cheek across her husband's bald scalp. She eased off the humming, pivoted her head until her chin stroked his head and asked Keyleth, “Is it our fault you guys can't think more than one fucking step ahead?”

“I don't know,” the druid smiled apologetically.

“I mean, I know I was there, too, but mother bitch I've had no experience with an actual raging barbarian. I just figured they'd have had some damn thing on hand to help.”

She nodded. “You'd think, wouldn't you?”

“Fucking bitch balls, he could have-”

“But I didn't, babe.” It was Travis' turn to calm her, petting her hand with Grog's beard.

“Oh, Travis, hon,” Her arms and legs tightened around him. “Are you OK?”

“I'm fine, just tired.” He raised he hand to stroke her arm. “Don't be too mad at them. We know how they are.”

“But, baby, they... and you could have... and they didn't even have anything to stop you.” Her voice thickened as she spoke.

Travis pulled Laura around to sit in his lap, taking his turn to stroke his chin over her head. He gave her a squeeze as he gently corrected her. “Of course they did. They had you.”

Staring into his eyes, her own flooded.

“I was so s-s-scared!”

Travis gathered her up, crooning into her ear as he gently rocked her back and forth. Sobbing into his chest, she wrapped her arms as far around him as they would go. Trinket edged his way closer to the pair. Keyleth watched them for a few moments, then rose to make her way back to her companions.

“They'll do better on their own together, I think.”

Travis kept rocking and crooning until Laura's sobs had reduced to a few hiccups and sniffles. When those had settled for the most part, he sat her up facing him, cupped her face in his hands and thumbed the tears away.

“Better?”

She nodded as she sniffed.

“You said you were scared.” He paused, wondering if he wanted to hear her answer to the question he needed to ask. Deciding 'want to' didn't matter in this case, he asked, “Of me?”

She shook her head, the denial so automatic is eased his worry. “Never. For you. What if you'd hurt someone when you were out of control?”

“I doubt they'd have called the cops on me.” She bumped her forehead against his.

“Stop it. You know it would have eaten away at you. Eventually you'd have left the game, maybe even,” her voice dropped. “Maybe even some other things.”

“Oh, come on, Laura.” He rested his forehead on hers much more gently than she had hers on him. “You know you won't be getting rid of me that easy.”

Her watery giggle cued VM that it might be OK to join them. Vax advanced first.

“Is it safe to come over?”

Travis waved him over. “It's OK. I haven't been raging since before we came back.”

“You I can deal with, raging or not. Her? Her I'm afraid of.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, is this actually three chapters in three days? Who am I and what have I done with me?
> 
> Constructive criticism welcome, as always.


	12. In a Local Ice Cream Parlor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vex, Grog and the CR gang make some stops around LA county.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another short one. Sorry.

Vex sat up straight, took a deep breath and raised her chin. Closing her eyes she informed the rest of the group, “Don't anyone bother me. I'm having a religious experience.”

“I know, right?” Grog enthused.

She opened her eyes and refocused her attention on the plate in front of her. “Please tell me. I must know what is this ambrosia in my glass?”

“That is a 'Chocolate-Strawberry Parfait With Sprinkles and Extra Whip'.” Ashley gestured with a spoonful of her 'Two Scoops of Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough and Cinnamon Caramel Swirl Ice Cream With Hot Fudge'. Marisha muttered about an extra four hours in the gym. “We didn't know if you were a chocolate- or a fruit-girl, so we got you both.”

“I think I'm a both-girl. What does Grog have?”

Liam stuck his nose in. “That's an 'Eight and Eight', eight scoops of ice cream and eight toppings. If he finishes it in under half an hour he wins a t-shirt.”

Grog's eyes got big, and his spoon started moving even faster.

After stopping at a small bakery for Grog (by the gods, how many kinds of 'doughnuts' needed to exist?), they had driven up into the hills on the outskirts of the city and, as described, the car didn't need to be pulled by anything. And they weren't the only ones; there had to have been hundreds, maybe thousands, of other cars on the miles of roads they drove on, roads covered with some sort of black rock mixture with yellow and white lines, and glassy bumps that made the car thump when driven over.

While the hills were nowhere near the height of the Alabaster Sierras or the Cliffkeeps that Vex was familiar with, they gave an amazing view of the city the locals called Los Angeles. Buildings were tucked against the foot of the hills, and spread like lumpy butter across all the land she could see. (OK, she was going to need to think of a better metaphor before describing the sight to Scanlan. It was just that all the others she came up with brought to mind corruption or infection.) And she saw a lot of land, hundred of miles in front of her, and the same to either side. And the others assured her that it continued miles beyond what they could see to an ocean's shore, covered with buildings nearly to land's end. Los Angeles had to be bigger even than Emon, possibly bigger than Emon and Westruun combined.

Once Vex had recovered from (the bulk of) her awe, they piled back into the car and drove to what Matt called 'the range', which turned out to be a place for shooting weapons, both guns and bows. She stood amazed at the number of people who owned firearms, not to mention the number of different types. After a while Liam nudged her shoulder.

“Want to give it a try?”

“I don't have my bow.”

“They have rentals.” When she remained silent Liam nudged her again. “Might be relaxing. Besides, do you think Laura would ever forgive us if she knew we got you to a shooting range and couldn't tell her how you looked using a bow.”

“Wouldn't that be how she looked when I was using a bow?”

He thought. “OK, now my brain hurts. If you're not interested, we can bail.”

“No, no, that's fine. Let's go see what they have.” They made their way to the booth with gear for hire, where Vex chose the best bow out of a mediocre lot and a quiver of borderline acceptable arrows. Joining the rest on the firing line, she saw Marisha and Taliesin were doing tolerably well, Ashley surprisingly poorly, and the other two somewhere between. (Grog was sitting behind them finishing the doughnuts, having no interest in fighting at a distance, even in practice.) Vex stepped up to shoot.

“Are you all serious?” The gamers (Vex decided that was a better term for her new friends than 'locals', which seemed a little patronizing once she thought about it) had all put their weapons down so they could watch her. “They're just paper targets.”

“We've never seen a professional at work before.” Sam said. “Archery isn't as popular as it used to be.”

Matt offered, “If it bothers you, we don't have to watch.”

“No, don't worry. It just seems an odd thing to be fascinated by.” She took her position, drawing her bow without an arrow to check the draw. “It's a little off, and my arms seem shorter.”

“Making excuses?” Liam poked at her ribs.

Vex gave him her 'sister's glare', to which she was happy to note he returned a brotherly grin. “Stating facts. It might take a shot or two for me to adapt, especially with borrowed arrows, but adapt I will.”

She chose an arrow, spun it around on her fingers for a few seconds, then nocked it, drew the bow and fired in one smooth motion. Her brow creased when she saw the arrow stuck in the ring outside the center of the target. After picking and spinning her next arrow, she nocked and drew it as smoothly as before, but there was a noticeable pause before she fired, this time hitting about a finger's width off true center. She emptied the quiver and ended up with a tight grouping around the second arrow, barring that first shot.

“That was strange,” she observed just as the rangemaster called for arrow recovery. Ashley and Taliesin volunteered and headed off to collect ammunition and change targets.

Liam put his hand lightly on her shoulder. “What was strange?”

“I had to think about hitting a sitting target. I haven't had to do that for years. Normally for things like that, I just stay out of the way and let my body take care of things, but for the last five arrows...”

“Well, there you go,” Sam piped up. “It's not your body, it's Laura's. It doesn't know archery from an arabesque. It's just not a skill with much demand in modern day LA.”

They gathered their gear and moved toward the exit, but on the way Vex saw a young brunette girl with a pony tail at the firing line. She shot with intense focus, but couldn't seem to get her arrows to group. Vex stopped.

“You jerk on your release.”

Reaching into her quiver, the girl almost bobbled the arrow. “Huh?”

“It's not a lute string to be plucked, little one. Just relax and release.” Vex took the bow to demonstrate. She drew and released, drew and released. “Like that. Do you see?”

The little brunette nodded and took the bow back.

“Show me.” The girl drew and released the bowstring. “There. Do you feel the difference?” A nod. “Good. Now shoot.” She did, hitting the inner ring, although not dead center. “OK, now aim for that arrow. Relax and release.”

Again the girl shot. Her jaw dropped when she saw the arrow had hit within a finger's width of her first shot. She spun to thank Vex, but the woman was nearly at the exit as she trotted to catch up with the rest.

“Softy,” Taliesin gently accused.

Vex shrugged. “She reminded me of my sister.”

Smiling softly at the memory Vex heard her spoon clink on the bottom of her glass. She looked around the table to see everyone else had finished as well, Grog examining his new shirt.

“Well, what's next?”


	13. In a Clearing, Before and After Dinner

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tary annoys Percy, everyone eats dinner and something happens.

Travis' laugh roared across the clearing. “See, babe? I keep telling you. You're the scary one in this couple. I think it's because you look so sweet that your bite is unexpected.”

“Travis!” She punched his shoulder, only remembering too late the mass of his muscles. “Oww. That's not fair. You're like punching a wall now.”

Across the clearing Tary elbowed Percy. “You know, the more I listen to them together, the more believable their story gets. To me, anyway.”

“To me as well,” Percy agreed. “But still, she- they look so much...”

“Yeah, she's pretty much identical to the girl you've been... enjoying for the past, how long has it been? A year, now?”

“Close to, and thank you.” Percy looked at his young friend.

Taryon looked over at him. “Thank you? For what?”

“Reminding me why, as a rule, I prefer to talk about inventions with you rather than have these deep conversations. Sleep well.”

“We haven't had dinner yet.”

“Fine, eat well, then.” Percy turned and walked over to sit beside Keyleth and Vax.

Their meal consisted of trail rations supplemented by some mushrooms and berries Keyleth found and some lake trout donated by Trinket. After he finished Travis set his bowl down, then looked at it strangely.

“What is it, big guy?” Vax wondered.

Travis flushed slightly. “Sorry. It's just... I've had three bowls of food, but somehow I'm still hungry.”

“Three bowls?” Keyleth asked. “Well, no wonder we've got leftovers. Grog usually eats five or more.”

Vax confirmed, “Yeah, He runs hot, needs lots of fuel.”

“Well, in that case...” Travis held out his bowl and Keyleth refilled it. They grinned at each other. “You'd think I'd have known that.”

“You knew he ate a lot. You just didn't know how much.” Laura defended him from himself.

Travis tweaked the end of her braid and announced across the campfire ring, “She's smitten with me.”

“Yah, and it's the best thing that ever happened to you.”

“When she's right, she's right.”

Laura began to respond, but suddenly she started to get dizzy. Happy she was sitting, she said, “Whoa, I think... I think I need some water or something.”

“You, too? My head just started swimming.” Travis dropped his head into his hands, elbows braced on his knees.

“I'm fine.” Keyleth exchanged concerned looks with Vax and Percy as Pike moved in to take a look at the pair. “Anyone else dizzy?”

The rest indicated in the negative. Pike examined their eyes, peered into their ears and listened to how they breathed. When she pulled back Laura rested her head on Travis' bicep.

“Fuck me sideways. I feel awful.” She closed her eyes and saw a familiar face in a familiar place. “Matt?”

Her eyes snapped open and Vox Machina in the forest returned.

“Travis, close your eyes,” she demanded.

“While my head's spinning like this? Do you really want me to hurl all that food?”

“Just do it and tell me what you see.”

After following his wife's instructions, Travis gasped. “Ashley? Tal?”

“Matt? Matt, it's me, Laura. I... we... can you... please... please help...” Her eyes opened and when she spoke again her voice had smoothed and deepened, taking on a more cultured accent. She looked around.

“Percy? Vax? Is it really you?”

Travis' voice, but deeper and rougher, complained, “Vex, I'm dizzy and I ain't even got beaten up.”

For a moment her smile rivaled the sunrise, then it faded. “No. Fuck no. Brother, hold on to-”

As the rest stood, knelt and sat around the pair, not knowing what to do, they watched Vex' eyes round and widen. Somehow they knew Laura again looked through them. She sagged against her husband.

“Mother Fucking Shit Balls.”

And she couldn't even cry.


	14. In and Around LA County

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Grog gets to do something other than eat. What happened last chapter happens here, with what might be considered a possible explanation.

They stopped at a park where Grog joined a pick up game of basketball. Their attempts to explain 'no-contact sport' went out the window when the opposing guard body-checked him onto his butt. After that it was no holds barred until, an hour and a half later, they managed to pull a sweaty and slightly bloodied Grog away from his new 'best-est friends ever, 'cept Pike, o' course'.

Debating their next stop came to a sudden halt when Marisha declared, “Shit! I forgot I left a script in my office. I need to look it over this weekend. Can I meet you guys somewhere?”

The others exchanged looks, some shrugging, some not, until Liam spoke up.

“I don't see a problem with that. On the other hand,” he turned to Grog and Vex. “Do you guys want to see where we play the game?”

“You play the game in her office?” The idea didn't seem practical to Vex, but maybe offices here were bigger than those she'd seen in Tal'Dorei.

Taliesin corrected her, “No, but it's in the same building. Want to come?”

It sounded like it could be interesting and she couldn't think of a reason not to, so they all piled into the cars and went to a place called Burbank.

Looking out over Los Angeles from the surrounding hills was one thing; being down in the middle of everything was something entirely different. The buildings were innumerable and immense, either in height or breadth, sometimes both. She saw some that were taller than three Castles Whitestone stacked one on the other, and one that took up more land than the entirety of Emon's Cloudtop District.

And the people! There had to be hundreds walking on every block, and that didn't count the ones in all of the cars that drove on the streets. They were all human, ranging in height from almost as short as Pike to almost as tall as an un-enlarged Grog, in skin tone from Keyleth pale to darker than Jarrett and the clothes they wore were like nothing she'd ever seen, except a few women who wore long loose skirts that reminded her of Keyleth's clothes, and that one couple in what looked like Whitestone formal: jacket, waistcoat and shiny shoes for the man; full skirt, corset and small top hat for the woman.

They stopped in front of a building, one of the larger, but not largest, ones. Marisha pulled out a key ring and unlocked a door. They entered a good-sized entry area, passed an unmanned desk and moved on to a short hallway with several pairs of metal sheets on the walls. Vex rubbed the back of her neck as Matt pushed one of a series of discs that were set into the wall beside one of the pairs of sheets.

The metal sheets turned out to be doors that slid apart rather than pivoted on hinges. The group passed through the doors and entered a very small room.

“Now, don't be startled,” Liam soothed. “This is an elevator. It goes up and down, so we can get to other floors without having to hassle with all the stairs.”

Grog grunted. “You mean kind of like the one in Allura's tower?”

Liam paused, then thumped the heel of his hand against his temple.

“I mean exactly like the one in Allura's tower. Sorry, I forgot about that.”

Vex wanted to assure him the warning was appreciated even if it hadn't been entirely necessary, but the low-grade disquiet she'd been feeling since entering the building had, upon the doors closing, suddenly grown into actual discomfort. She felt as if the contents of her skull and vertebrae had started quivering in a jangly sort of way.

“Are you OK, Vex?” Ashley's hand rested on her shoulder, and Vex realized she was pinching the bridge of her nose with one hand, while her other arm was wrapped around her stomach as if to support it somehow.

“I feel odd. Very odd. It's something like being dizzy, but not. It started when we came in the building, maybe a little before.” The doors opened again. “But suddenly it's so much worse in here.”

“Well, then, let's get you out of here.”

Matt and Taliesin each took an arm and hustled her out into another hallway. The others followed, with Marisha asking, “How are you feeling, Grog?”

“Honestly? Not totally great, since you asked. Like she's talking about. I can deal, though.”

They all moved out of the elevator hallway to a door that Marisha unlocked and entered what Vex assumed was the redhead's office. She grabbed something off one of the desks, waved her arms around to indicate the room, and said, “This is my office and this is my desk. Impressive, I know. We can bail whenever.”

Liam wanted to know, “How are you two doing?”

“Better.” Grog nodded in agreement. “Still that kind of off feeling, but it's nothing I- we can't handle.”

“Well, we can head out now, but if you're feeling up to it, I thought you might like to see where we play the game. It's up to you two, either way.”

“Sure, why not.”

The group continued down the hallway, took a left, then two rights, then another left, went a little further, and stopped outside a set of heavy double doors.

“The stage isn't set; we don't play until Thursday,” Taliesin informed them as Matt and Liam muscled open the doors. “But this is the place, and we can pull up some shots on our phones to show you.”

“Shots? Why not show them some episodes?” Sam asked.

“Do we really want to stare at ourselves performing for at least three hours?”

“Yeesh, point made and taken.”

The room was on the large side, but a good half of it was filled with tables, shelves and an enormous amount of items she had no way to identify. It was lit, but dimly, and the side that wasn't full was completely empty. And white. Very white.

“Throwing the switch.”

As the lights became almost painfully bright, Vex vaguely heard a kind of 'chunk' sound, but didn't really think about it much since she was abruptly assaulted by a wave of nausea even worse than that in the elevator.

She fell to her knees, hearing a voice she rather thought was Marisha's saying something about was it the electricity, but she wasn't exactly sure about anything other than the roiling in her stomach. Someone knelt next to her. Someone else, possibly Sam, yelled to shut something off.

“Matt?... Travis, close your eyes.” Words she wasn't saying spilled from her mouth in a voice she wasn't entirely familiar with. Matt shouted for someone to leave it on.

Grog didn't sound like Grog when he said, “While my head's spinning like this? Do you really want me to hurl all that food?”

“Just do it and tell me what you see.” More words that didn't come from her.

“Ashley? Tal?”

“Matt? Matt, it's me, Laura.” Oh, that explained things. This Laura had a very pleasant voice. “I... we... can you... please... please help...”

As Laura stumbled through her request, and Vex wondered if Laura was feeling as bad as Vex herself was, the half-elf-from-birth finally processed that this Travis saw his friends after he closed his eyes. Would it work from this end? Praying to whatever god had domain over this place that she wasn't going to vomit, she closed hers.

The vision of a forest she saw behind her eyelids was as real as any she'd every seen and, praise Seranrae (and whatever god had domain in this world of Matt and his friends), it included the two people she loved best in either world. “Percy? Vax? Is it really you?”

“Vex, I'm dizzy and I ain't even got beat up.” Both sets of ears heard Grog complaining.

As she took in the sight of familiar faces and scenery like that she'd spent the best times of her life in, she felt the biggest smile she'd ever made spread across her face. The feeling only lasted a moment, though, because her sight went blurry and she wasn't feeling the cool forest breeze on her face any more.

“No. Fuck no. Brother, hold on to-”

The blurry forest faded completely to eyelid black. She rolled from her side back to her knees just in time to release her disappointment and what remained of her lunch. Ice cream didn't taste nearly so good the second time.

She dimly felt Matt kneel beside her and shout, “Someone get a damp cloth. And a mop.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, I have no knowledge of the layout of the Geek & Sundry offices, nor where the studios are relative to them. This is all out of my head.
> 
> Also, the last day of Camp NaNoWriMo is tomorrow, and I've got a tutoring gig, so updates may slow back down. Sorry.


	15. Packing Up and Heading Out (Mostly Heading Out)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Exandria crew are working out stuff on their side.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Things are starting to move faster, both in the story and the writing, so chapters are getting shorter and, at some point (not now, but soon), we're probably going to have chapters that contain action from both sides. Is this something I need to tell you, seeing as you'll find out for yourselves? Who knows, but I needed to say it.
> 
> Please enjoy.

Laura was quiet for the rest of the evening, which actually wasn't very long for her as she turned in early. She curled up on Trinket, and Travis joined them a while later, holding his wife until he was woken for last watch.

The next morning a subdued Vox Machina packed up and headed out. Little was said and none of it unnecessary. After walking mostly in silence for an hour Laura shook herself.

“This is ridiculous. I'm looking at this wrong. They made it through, _we_ made it through, even if it was just for a few seconds. That's nothing to mope about; that's a win, right?”

No one seemed to understand what she meant except Percy. “That's right, they did make it through. And if they- you made it for some seconds, there must be a way to make it permanent. Are your friends smart?”

“Some are very smart, although I wouldn't call any of them stupid.” Laura grinned. “But even better, every single one of them is _creative_.”

“Oh, babe, you're right!” Travis breathed hopefully.

“If they figured out what happened, they now have confirmation of their theory. If it was totally an accident, they'll figure out what made it happen. Once we get our side sorted out, we'll have it.”

Vax was confused. “Our side?”

“Yes, our side. Whatever happened actually happened on their plane and it sort of worked. I'm thinking there's something we need to do here, too. If we can do it both things together, we should all end up where we're supposed to be.”

She pulled the broom out of its sheath on her back and climbed on, a non-verbal hint for them to keep moving.

“Now, you say you're after a caster, a transmuter, right?” Vax and Keyleth both nodded agreement. “Now it seems to me, and I gladly admit I don't know much about magic, but Plane Shift really doesn't sound like transmutation, like 'turning shit into other shit', but swapping bodies might?”

Her tone rose on the last word, making the sentence a question as she looked from face to face. Vox Machina answered by turning as one to face Tary, who responded with an almost panicked, “Why me?”

“It's arcane magic, Tary. That's you,” Keyleth reminded him.

“Oh, right. That's right. Well,” Tary tried to gather himself together enough to answer the question. “Um. Well, Plane Shift is definitely a conjuration spell, but I've never heard of a spell that would move minds from one body to another.”

Percy stepped up. “If you were going to create a spell like that, where would you start? What type of spell would you create it as?”

“Well, I think I'd actually first try to create it as an enchantment, but that would manifest entirely differently. Given the aspects I've seen of this spell, I'd say it's more conjuration or transmutation, possibly with, um, aspects of both.”

“OK, so what if... I mean, well...” Surprisingly it was Keyleth who spoke up. “I mean, what if it's not a new spell? Maybe she screwed up Plane Shift? Maybe she wanted to get rid of Vex and Grog, and just screwed it up.”

“Plane Shift is a conjuration spell, as Tary said.” Percy picked up the thread and Keyleth and Tary nodded agreement. “So wouldn't it make sense that, if a specialist botched a spell from a different school than their specialty, that spell might take on aspects of the caster's specialty school?”

Tary nodded thoughtfully. “One of my tutors was a mage moonlighting under the table. He'd traveled the world and he told me a story of a student he had in Kymal, one who was a naturally gifted illusionist, but was relatively weak on the other schools. He wanted to learn Burning Hands so he could do some direct damage (he apparently was afflicted by the local bullies) (also I think he was a bit of a pyro), but he pumped the fire up too far and burned his hands completely off. He totally slagged the family signet ring. The strange thing was you couldn't tell he had no hands unless he tried to handle something. He accidentally created a permanent illusion of his hands, including the ring, where his hands were supposed to be.”

“Interesting story. A bit heavy on the details for what we need, but it supports the hypothesis. So where does that take us?” Percy asked.

“Well, Keyleth knows the druid version of Plane Shift,” Pike pointed out. “How different is that from the wizard kind?”


	16. Still In Burbank

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Recovering from nausea, and figuring out wth is going on, or at least half of it. Maybe more.

Ashley and Marisha each took one of Vex's arms and helped her out of the large room, with Matt, Taliesin and Sam doing the same for Grog. After the nausea faded suddenly, Liam came up beside Vex. He must have... un-thrown the switch, whatever that was.

They walk-stumbled down the hallway, took a right, but halfway to the next turn Vex had to sit down. She sank to the floor, pillowing her head in her arms. She moaned, “Shining Pelor, I hate puking.”

“Here. Rinse, spit, drink.” Liam pressed a cold bottle in one hand, a cup made of paper into the other. “Careful, the bottle's open.”

Vex could hear Ashley telling Grog the same thing in nearly the exact same words.

“But I didn't hurl.”

“Then just drink.”

After following Liam's instructions, discovering the bottle contained some sort of bubbly water that tasted of something like lemon, and downing half of said lemony bubble-water, she felt her limbs shift from soup stock to muscle and bone. The hallway stopped swaying like a willow in a storm as she lifted her head. She pushed herself up the wall until she was on her feet again.

“I know we need to talk about what happened, but can we do it somewhere else? The worst part's gone, but I've still got that under-feeling of ick.”

Liam smoothed her hair out of her face. “Are you up to the elevator?”

“Do we have a choice?” she tried to quip, but it came out tired.

“Sure, if you're up to eight flights of stairs.”

She considered the state of her legs. “The elevator, I suppose. Can it be a quick trip?”

“It'll be as quick as we can make it, twinnie. OK by you, Grog?”

The once and hopefully future goliath grunted affirmatively.

They went to a park that wasn't too far away. Trying not to reach for a necklace that wasn't there anymore, Vex climbed into the lower branches of an oak tree as the rest settled themselves on the scrubby grass nearby.

“All right, they both felt ill in the elevators and the studio,” Taliesin got started. “What do they have in common?”

“It's certainly not size,” inserted Sam.

“Let's not make it harder than it is,” Marisha advised. “They were low-grade queasy throughout the building, felt worse in the elevators, but about the same in the studio until I turned on the power, when Grog doubled over and Vex went to her knees. What could it be besides electricity?”

Ashley looked dubious. “But life, especially complex life, is powered by electricity.”

“Not in those quantities.”

“But if we plane shifted at that tudo place, why did we wake up in the house?” Grog was wearing his thinking/constipated expression again.

“Good point, Grog.” Vex patted his head that happened to be under her branch. “But don't think too hard. You don't want to hurt yourself.”

Marisha went from exited to disappointed. “Shoot. Another perfectly good theory killed by facts.”

“And resurrected by other facts.” Matt looked both stunned and elated. “Was I the only one awake when last night's rain turned into a thunderstorm? I was working on a couple of rough plots for next Thursday, and there was a lightning strike so close we lost power for a few seconds. It may even have hit the house.”

"I must have slept through it," Marisha mused.

Ashley furrowed her eyebrows as she looked at Matt. “Let's see if I'm following, 'cause I'm not sure I am. We're thinking that some spell caster wanted to get rid of a couple members of Vox Machina. It doesn't matter which two at the moment, but at least two. We're saying this caster decided to modify Plane Shift to cast at a distance (per this morning, right?), and cast it at whichever VM members she wanted to lose, but she screwed it up somehow and didn't get the pair she wanted. Meanwhile, a lightning strike at La Casa Mer-Ray creates some sort of attraction between the two affected by the spell and the two who play them, causing their minds to switch both planes and bodies, while said bodies stayed on their respective planes. Is that what we're saying?”

“It sounds awfully coincidental.” Vex was dubious.

“Thank you for the lampshade, Vex.” Taliesin waved his hands at Vex' confused grimace. “It's a trope thing... You know, I'll explain that later. What matters now is that it's a way it could have happened, not that it had to have happened that way. It's a possible explanation that, as far as I can tell covers all the information we have, and that's more than we had an hour ago. I'm going to take a step further and postulate that the electric power in the G&S office building disrupts the current status quo the spell created, and the nausea is your minds trying to be in two planes at one time. Or something like that.”

“But why were we in two planes? Why didn't the disruption send us home permanently?”

“Something's missing. Probably on the other side.” Matt added his contribution. “We accidentally recreated our side of the situation, so they probably have to do the same.

“The question is can the folks over there figure this out? Or can we get them a message somehow?”

Vex groaned, flopping herself over the branch so both her head and feet hung down. “By all of Pelor's bright, shiny sunbeams, I don't want to have this idea. I really, _really_ hate puking. Please, someone, come up with something, anything, else.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And we come to the foreshadowing I've been mentioning in the comments. I'm going to add the thunderstorm, or at least the rain, in chapter 2 or 4 or somewhere.


	17. Almost to the Battle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The contingent in Exandria approaches the battlefield.
> 
> Another short chapter.

“By Charlie's cold wet nose, I hope that's the last time we have to do that,” Laura groaned, then corrected herself. “Except for when we go home, of course.”

Feeling the green fade from his expression, Travis agreed. “I don't think it was as bad as the first time, but still...”

They both shuddered. Travis pulled himself together first.

“So we now know they've figured out their part. Since we're pretty sure we've figured out ours, we're in a pretty good spot, right?”

“Well, allowing for the fact that we have no way to test any of our assumptions, much less the conclusions we've drawn from them,” Percy calculated. “I'm operating on roughly an eighty per cent comfort level.”

“Eighty per cent?” Keyleth sounded dubious.

“It's higher than I am with most of my experiments.”

“Maybe, but still... this is about their lives.”

“I understand, Keyleth, and I agree. I do,” Percy acknowledged. “But we've gone as far as we can with this, and I honestly don't see another direction to go. Do you?”

Keyleth reluctantly shook her head. Laura put her hand over the druid's fidgety one. With a soft tone, she cut in, only letting the slightest bit of Vex' voice to slip into her own. “Keyleth dear, I trust Percy's eighty per cent more than I trust most people's one hundred. Even without surety, can you stand with us?”

The restless hand stilled as Keyleth met Laura's gaze.

“Of course. Always.” Laura pulled her into a hug, which she returned with all the strength in her slender arms. Trinket caused laughter all around when he levered his nose between them to get his share of snuggles. Vax opened his mouth, got a sour, surprised look and shut it again. Interpreting the expression, Percy answered the unspoken question with a wicked grin.

“Not anymore. I think being banished to the balcony a few nights taught him not to.”

Vax groaned and tried to wipe an image from in front of him, causing more laughter. Laura produced her own evil smile.

“And to think it was only yesterday morning you were scolding me for a joking innuendo.”

Percy's ears went a bit pink as he rubbed the back of his neck. “I think I was looking for excuses to keep you at arm's length. I hope you'll accept my most sincere apologies.”

“No need, Percy. Yesterday morning was hard on everyone.” Laura's grin softened to a gentle smile. She patted his cheek. “I'm tempted to kiss right there, but it seems to be the sort of bad idea even I wouldn't do.”

“Probably best you don't. Your husband is very large, and I like my nose where it is.”

“It wouldn't be your nose I'd be aiming for.” Settling his arm around Laura's shoulders, Travis sent Percy a look that was friendly, teasing and vaguely threatening all at the same time as he glanced briefly at the front of the gunslinger's trousers.

“All the more so, then, as I like that where that is as well.”

The three shared a chuckle and Laura split off to join her brother in front while Travis moved back to take up the traditional goliath's position behind the party. As they separated Travis raised his voice to ask the group, “Anyone know about how far we have to go?”

“We were about a half-day from where a trail splits from the road and leads to their compound, so we should be getting close to that,” Pike spoke up. “After that, maybe another hour, hour and a half.”

“So... what? We get to the trailhead, take out any advance guards, short rest if we need it, then on to the final battle?”

Pike nodded. “Sounds about right. Just remember, everyone, there's likely to be a whole lot of casters. More than we're used to.”


	18. In the Park, At the Trailhead, Back In the Park

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vex considers Vox Machina, the Exandria contingent clears a trailhead, someone sings.

Back in the park, her stomach slowly settling, Vex leaned back against the bench where Liam sat braiding her hair. Well, Laura's hair. Her own hadn't been this short for several years.

“Hey, anyone up for an early dinner? That Mexican place does take-out,” Sam pitched.

This was one of her favorite times, when they knew shit was going to go down, but it wasn't going down yet. It was normally the night before. Her brother would be sharpening his daggars, Grog would be choosing between the Bloodaxe and the Dwarven Throwers, and Percy would be examining his guns and ammunition for flaws, repairing those he found. Pike and Keyleth would be considering which spells to learn, sometimes asking for opinions or support from the rest of the party. Scanlan would be tuning his lute, if he was there; when he was finished he'd pull out that damned shawlm and play in between the quips and insults he'd be trading with Vex herself, who'd also be checking Fenthras and her arrows, counting her spare bowstrings, and playing with Trinket beside her.

When he was done, Vax would move over to sit behind her, braiding her hair like Liam was now. The rest would gather around the fire as they finished their tasks. They'd debate the usefulness of a hero's feast given what they expected for the following fight, as opposed to having the chalice available later and whether they could expect to replace it before the next encounter. Vax would move over to sit next to Keyleth and, almost before the heat left the space he'd given up, Percy would be beside her, adding his own.

But it wasn't so much what they did, as it was that they were doing it together. They weren't just seven people, or even seven people with one goal. They were Vox Machina.

Vex wondered how it could be that these people somehow were Vox Machina, too.

* * *

Laura counted herself lucky, then felt a little guilty. They decided that the best way to start the battle with the three defenders at the trailhead would be hand to hand, rather than at range. Vax stealthed his way behind the human in brown leathers across the trail, while Travis carried Pike to the elf in black arcane robes and the half-orc wearing hides and feathers on this side. The collapsing human was the buddies' signal to take out their pair, Travis on the half-orc, Pike on the elf.

Feathers, as Travis mentally dubbed her, went down with one solid roundhouse. Turning to give Pike a hand, he found she'd one-shotted her foe as well.

“That went a lot easier than I thought it would.”

Travis almost swung at the voice that spoke from behind him, until he realized it was Vax. “Are they still alive?”

“Yep,” Pike answered after a brief consultation with her holy symbol.

The trio looked over the three on the ground. Vax considered, “Probably new recruits, on guard duty until they prove themselves.”

“So we tie them up, gag them, come back and get them after the fight's over?”

Surprised, Pike looked up at Travis. “You are definitely not Grog.”

“Guilty as charged. Sorry.”

“No need.” She smiled. “It's kind of a refreshing change.

“Do _not_ tell him I said that,” she demanded, turning to Vax.

“Wouldn't dream of it, Pickle.”

The rest of the party approached. Keyleth wondered, “Is it time?”

“Are you two ready?” Percy asked.

“Does it matter if we're not?” Laura responded.

“Point taken. Keyleth, if you please?”

The druid nodded, cast her spell and the tree opened.

* * *

She'd finished her 'enchiladas suisas', and was considering how to describe them to Laina so she could have them back home.

“Hey, Vex, that's real pretty.” Grog interrupted her musings. “How come you don't sing when we're home?”

“I don't sing because I can't carry a tune.”

Grog was dubious. “Huh. Coulda fooled me.”

“Laura sings, and nicely,” Liam pointed out.

“Do I really need to point out that I'm not Laura?”

“No, but you are in her body,” Ashley noted, then grinned. “Hey, how about an experiment?”

Vex was dubious. “Experiment?”

“Do you trust me?”

“Somehow I can't not trust you,” Vex admitted after a moment. “Maybe it's because I see Pike when I look at you.”

“This won't hurt, unless it's our ears if it doesn't work,” Ashley promised. “Just sit back and relax. Close your eyes. Breathe deep.”

Vex followed directions. When she had her eyes closed and was filling her lungs with each breath, Pike's alter-ego started singing a simple tune with old-sounding words. Leaning on Liam's legs, Vex heard another voice join Ashley's, not using words, not following the melody, but singing a more than acceptable harmony. Marisha was a good singer, although it didn't really sound like her. In fact, something was going on Vex' own throat, a kind of... buzzing? Humming?

“There we go.” Ashley sounded rather satisfied.

Vex intended to ask what she meant, but realized that body parts she needed to do so, specifically her mouth and throat, were already busy. As she understood that she was the one singing the harmony, the rather lovely harmony broke into what she could only describe as a squawk.

Ashley's voice smirked a little. “Well, it _was_ working.”

“I was singing. OK, it was with her voice, but I was singing!” Vex probably would have babbled a little more, but she was attacked by a wave of nausea. A few people over, Grog made a kind of _hurk_ sound.

The wave passed fairly quickly, for which Vex was grateful, but she still had a mission.

“Time to go back to the studio.”


	19. The Battle Begins

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The title pretty much says it all.

Laura stepped out of the tree behind Travis and in front of Percy. As the nausea faded she tried to remind herself it was a good sign. They'd hoped another conjuration-based transport spell might trigger the nausea, which would do two things: support their belief that a Plane Shift spell may have played a roll in their problems; and hopefully let their counterparts know that shit was going down. Staying in the studio would mean possibly hours of mild nausea that would be draining to their stamina, and they needed to be battle-ready when they reached home, so the CR crew had headed back to the park after sending the message.

Vox Machina emerged on the edge of a... what should she call it? It wasn't really a clearing as it lead to a large mansion-like building, it wasn't a field since the grass was cut to about yard height, but it was much too big to actually be a yard. Taking a closer look she saw burn marks, divots, and patches of dead grass that told her she was actually looking at the mages' training grounds. There was even a large, squared off mound of dirt for drill instructors or people giving inspiring speeches.

Vox Machina made it less than halfway to the building before a flood of robed figures poured out of the mansion. Some were still tying their belts or tripping over their unlaced boots. For once it looked like surprise was on the side of Vox Machina.

Pike took off running, roaring as she brandished her mace, and Travis followed suit. Laura had been... what was the word?... amused? Intrigued? Delighted?... to actually see Vax fade into the shadows of the forest while Percy strode forward, double-checking that Animus was loaded correctly, then firing on the front line of their foes. Tary followed some paces behind Pike and Travis, Keyleth went earth elemental mid-stride in her charge, and Laura found herself astride Vex' broom, feet in stirrups, Fenthras in hand, arrows nocked, drawn and flying.

Flying, yes, but they weren't hitting. OK, some were, but only maybe every other one, and fewer were connecting anywhere that mattered. She would have sworn that flying a broom would be enough to distract her from everything else, but no matter how she tried, she was still Laura Bailey, and Laura Bailey'd never been in a real battle.

Suddenly it hit her. Ignoring the queasy feeling in her stomach, she straightened her back, tucked her chin just a bit, and surveyed the battle before her. Selecting her target, an elven caster whose attention was focused on Pike, she nocked her arrow, drew her bow, winked at her quarry and fired.

As the caster fell off the dirt mound and her spell broke, Pike called, “Thanks, Vex! Wait, I mean-”

“Not a problem, darling.” She shifted her attention. She'd noticed that the barbarian roar she'd been hearing wasn't nearly as savage as the ones she'd heard in the clearing the day before. “Travis, I'm an idiot. Being not-us isn't enough. You need to _be_ Grog, like I was with Vex that first night. The Speak With Animals spell, remember? Just be Grog!”

A bellowed roar, familiar but more, carried over the battlefield. Laura smiled and chose another target, this time remembering to Hunter's Mark them. As that foe fell, she saw a group in the back sending little magic-generated darts at Pike, Keyleth and, oops, pay attention, Laura herself. Swooping low for maximum effect, she cast Conjure Barrage and watched two dozen foes fall, including the dart casters.

She rose higher above the field and was about to choose her next target when an enraged scream drew her attention to a balcony just above her level. Scooting up a few feet Laura saw an adult human woman wearing richly embroidered robes with an ostentatious tiara who was absolutely festooned with gems and jewelry. The Vex inside Laura felt the woman was passably pleasant looking, but the mass of ornamentation hanging from her made her look almost dowdy in comparison.

The caster gazed over the battlefield, then threw her arms wide and laughed triumphantly to the sky. Laura wondered what she saw, as Laura herself was watching Vox Machina plowing their way through the mansion's defenders.

“Fear me, world. I am Elda, Archmage of Transmutation, Lady of Polymorph–.”

Laura interrupted, “Queen of Sucking At Plane Shift.”

“You? You bitch!” The shock in her voice rivaled the fury.

“Oooh, and Contessa de No Originality. One question: why did you pick us two? Keyleth is so much more powerful than either of us.”

“Grass caster. She's no threat to me.” Laura took a quick glance at Keyleth's rock monster plowing her way alongside Travis, sending casters flying in all directions. Elda continued, “How did you find your way back?”

“Darling, I never left.” Laura punctuated her statement with her best Vex-wink over her drawn arrow.

Incensed, the transmuter screamed, “You lie! I felt the spell fire! You _have_ to have plane shifted! You and that blasted metal-spitter!”

“Metal-spitter?” It took Laura a moment to process past the grinding nausea (thank goodness she was an actor), but no longer. “You mean Percy? My dear, you were so very far off.”

“HA!!! So you're admitting it worked!”

Laura thought, then shook her head, rejecting the idea. “You know what? I'm going to have to say 'no'. I think by any reasonable definition of 'working', that spell did not. In other words, you fucked up, your bitchness.”

“YOU LIE!!!”

“You're repeating yourself and, current concepts of critical thinking aside, increasing the volume of your speech does not increase the validity of your statement.” Laura watched her foe's complexion turn positively purple.

The caster screamed a series of syllables that had to be the verbal component to a spell. She proved Laura right when an enormous pair of wings tore out of her shoulder blades, her fingers turned into talons, and feathers sprouted down her arms. Her voice harsher, she shrieked another spell and this time Laura recognized the accompanying gestures as a variation on Plane Shift, just like Keyleth had shown her. When Elda leapt into the air, Laura recognized her cue.

“Travis!” she shouted, haring off at top broom speed, using every evasive action she'd ever seen in every war movie her husband had ever dragged her to see. “Travis, it's time!”

“Got it, babe!” Travis took out two minions with a single roundhouse, one more with a follow up jab. He stepped away from the furor then raised his hand.

Fighting the instinct to veer away from all of the spells flying past her head, Laura dove under the next one, barrel rolled away from another, and spiraled around a third. She dodged, darted, and dashed, until she reached her husband's hand and grabbed it.

When the spell hit, she froze.

* * *

Vex hit her knees, arms clenched to her stomach.

“Do it!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note: Now _this_ is a cliffhanger. :D
> 
> Note 2: Yes, I know this isn't how spell casting works in D&D. Can we just go with it?


	20. Eternity and a Little After

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What happened after the spell hit.

The nausea vanished. But then, so did everything else.

And it wasn't just sight she lost. Battlefields had distinctive sights, of course, but the sounds, the smells, even that gritty taste in the back of her throat, they were all gone, too. All she could sense was the grip of a familiar hand in hers. Fortunately that grip was all that mattered.

She tried to speak, but there was no air to push through her throat, nor to pull into her lungs, which actually seemed perfectly happy without any. Instead she squeezed the hand and was so happy when it squeezed back.

Later (it could have been seconds, years or eons; the sense of time was another one she was missing) she felt a breeze that grew to a wind. Not a storm wind, as it wasn't threatening, she felt more like she was back on the broom, racing through the sky, with no destination besides 'thataway'.

Later again, she glimpsed a tiny glow, far away in the darkness. It slowly grew, no, it came closer, closer, until she could detect a form in the light. While she examined the form, no, two forms, she noticed another glow coming from behind her, again no, from her, her and... and Travis, thank whatever powers that happen to be in this dark, empty place, it was actually Travis, hair and all.

She watched as the other glow continued to approach. It was two forms, one roughly a quarter the size of the other. The larger was a behemoth of a bald man, the smaller a slender woman with a long braid. Eventually both pairs met in the middle of the great emptiness. As they drifted past each other Laura reached her free hand out to touch the tip of a pointed ear. Vex (of course it was Vex; who else would it be?) smiled and put out her own free hand to cup her cheek and pull her closer. Their lips touched, then the astral wind, or whatever it was, pulled them apart.

* * *

Vex suddenly found herself on her broom over a battlefield, a barbarian's triumphant roar sounding from below. Off balance she almost fell, but managed to spin her way upright again. She turned around to face the winged caster behind her, who stared in stunned surprise at her talons, over at Vex, then back at her hand-equivalents.

“But... I... How..?”

“Oh, darling,” Vex purred. She drew Fenthras, summoning all its power as she stared down her foe. “You've never met Vox Machina.”

* * *

She opened her eyes and stood up, finding herself in a large, white room that was half empty, half crammed full with electronic equipment. Six people stood in front of her with varying proportions of concern and excitement in their faces.

The door opened and a man stepped into the room. “Hey, guys. Ash, did you forget we had plans tonight?”

“In a minute, Brian.” The blond woman who spoke didn't look at this 'Brian'.

She backed away from the group and bumped into a tall, muscled figure behind her.

“Is that you, Mustang?”

Mustang's voice growled in her ear. “Lust? What happened to you? You're... cute.”

“Oh, shit,” The taller, dark haired man breathed.

The new-comer asked, “What's going on?”

“Not now, Brian.” This was from the redhead.

The man wearing glasses asked, “So what do we do now?”

She couldn't help it. She brought her hand up to cover her mouth as it broke into a wide grin. Laughter bubbled in her voice as she said, “Oh, my god, your faces, guys.”

“Damnit, Laura, couldn't you hold it for an single minute?” Travis complained.

“Come on, Travis, Taliesin looked like he was going to have a heart attack, and just look at Matt. What was I supposed to do?”

“Oh, you little brat!” Liam marched forward, grabbed Laura by the shoulders, tucked her under his arm and gave her the noogie to end all noogies. Amid her yelps and apologies Ashley strode to Travis, put all her body into the punch she gave Travis' shoulder, and told him, in no uncertain terms, exactly what she thought of him at that very moment. As the rest gathered around for mass hugs, Brian looked confused, and Marisha made a firm declaration.

“And you all wondered why I didn't buy in when I first heard their story.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And so it goes. Hope you all enjoyed.


End file.
